Inkster Falls to Kim in LPGA Playoff

BROKEN ARROW, Okla. -- Needing only to make a 5-foot putt on No. 18 to win the SemGroup Championship on Sunday, Mi Hyun Kim pushed it right of the hole. But she received a quick chance for redemption, and took advantage of it.
 
Kim, forced into a playoff with Hall of Famer Juli Inkster because of the miss, won on the first extra hole -- making a 4-foot par putt on No. 18 -- for her first LPGA Tour victory of the year.
 
Kim, who started the round one shot behind the leaders, won for the eighth time on the tour. Inkster, who will turn 47 next month, would have been the oldest player to win an LPGA Tour event. She closed with a 2-under 69 in regulation.
 
Kim, who shot a 71, and Inkster finished regulation tied at 3-under, one shot ahead of Ai Miyazoto and Angela Stanford. Four others were at 1-under, including Lorena Ochoa, Reilley Rankin and Stephanie Louden. Rankin and Louden began the day in a four-way tie for first.
 
"My goal is just top 10, top 20 this week," Kim said. "I never (thought) about a win this week. Maybe I worry about the cut."
 
Kim, whose last tour win in 2006 came after a three-hole playoff with Natalie Gulbis in the Jamie Farr Owens Corning Classic, hit her second shot in the playoff to the fringe on the back of the green, about 35 feet from the hole, and two-putted.
 
Inkster's second shot, using a 6-iron, sailed over the green. She chipped 8 feet past the hole but missed the par putt.
 
"I don't know if it was adrenaline or what, but I just hit it too far and didn't get it up and down," Inkster said. "Kind of disappointing.
 
"I've been putting good. I just felt like if I could get it within my reach, I could make it but it didn't happen."
 
Six players held the lead at some point on a cloudy, humid day. The 6,602-yard Cedar Ridge Country Club course was soggy from storms that hit Oklahoma the past week.
 
Moments after Inkster bogeyed No. 17 to fall out of the lead, Kim curled in a breaking 15-foot birdie putt at No. 16 to take a two-shot edge. Inkster hit a 6-foot birdie putt on No. 18 to close the gap to one shot.