Irving, TX – Inbee Park birdied her final hole on Sunday to hold off overnight-leader Carlota Ciganda and win the inaugural North Texas LPGA Shootout by a single stroke.
Park entered the final round two strokes off the pace, but she was able to grab the lead when Ciganda bogeyed No. 14 and tripped to a double bogey on the next hole at Las Colinas Country Club.
Ciganda rallied with a birdie on the final hole to pull even with her playing partner, but the world No. 1 Park calmly followed with an 8-foot birdie make of her own to lock up her sixth career LPGA Tour victory and third of the season.
Park, who won the season's first major, the Kraft Nabisco Championship, earlier this month, carded a final-round 4-under 67 and ended 72 holes at 13- under 271.
"It's really good to see my game is improving every week, every year, and just trying to take it step by step," said Park. "If I wasn't putting good this week, I just try to improve on it next week, and if I was not hitting the ball as good this week, I just try to improve that next week, and everything's just improving step by step every week, and I feel it, too."
Ciganda shot a final-round 70, finished at 12-under-par 272, and was denied her first LPGA Tour win.
Suzann Pettersen ended alone in third place at 10-under after a final-round 66, while 2011 U.S. Women's Open champion So Yeon Ryu (68) and Hee Young Park (64) tied for fourth at 9-under.
It didn't take long for Inbee Park to erase her overnight deficit, as she birdied the opening hole, and Ciganda, a two-time winner on the Ladies European Tour, bogeyed the second, resulting in a tie at the top.
Ciganda showed her mettle, though, picking up birdies at Nos. 3 and 6, then matching Park's gain on the eighth to re-establish her overnight advantage at the turn.
After both players opened the back nine with a hatrick of pars, Ciganda's dismantling began with a bogey at the 14th, which Park parred.
With the margin down to one, Ciganda found water on the par-4 15th, chipped onto the green from the drop zone with her fourth, and 2-putted for double bogey.
Again, Park calmly parred, and the 2-stroke swing had the world No. 1 on top by a shot at 12-under.
"I didn't know because I saw the ball bouncing on the green, so I thought that maybe it was there long," Ciganda said of No. 15. "But when I was approaching the green, I could see that the wind was hard and the ball was in the water. So I mean, I just tried to make up on that, and I missed my putt, so then it was a six, and that was it. I think that was the key hole."
After pars on Nos. 16 and 17, both players went slightly right off the tee at the par-5 last. With water on the right and Ciganda slightly ahead, Park opted to go for the green, belting a 5-wood over a grouping of nearby trees and ending just shy of the putting surface.
"Carlota was a lot ahead of me, and I knew that she might -- looked like from my position she might go for it from there and that she had a little bit of a space in between the trees. So I thought that she would probably make a birdie and I was expecting her to make a birdie," Park said of her decision to go for the green.
Ciganda, surrounded by the group of trees, rolled her second shot through the green and onto the back fringe. She then chipped within 12 feet and Park responded with a chip, which stopped eight feet from the cup.
Needing to sink her putt to force a tie, Ciganda did just that, dunking the 12-footer with authority. Undaunted, Park cooly drained her 8-footer for birdie and a 1-stroke victory.
NOTES: With the win, Park surpassed the $6 million mark in career earnings. She will retain her No. 1 ranking for the third straight week ... Park now has five wins in her last 18 starts ... This was the first time Ciganda had owned the 54-hole lead on the LPGA Tour.
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