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Scranton Wins Walgreens
Charity Championship
THE VILLAGES,
FLA., April 28, 2013 – Nancy
Scranton earned her fifth career win today at The Legends Tour’s
inaugural $225,000 Walgreens Charity Championship. The first-round
leader fell behind in today’s final round, but scrambled on the back
nine to win by one shot.
The Illinois native carded
rounds of 67-69 to finish at 8-under 136 to earn the winner’s check
for $30,000. She edged out runner-up Jane Crafter of Australia, who
posted rounds of 68-69 to finish one shot back at 7-under 137.
“I was just really patient
today,” said Scranton, who now lives in St. Augustine, Fla. “You
never know which holes you’re going to birdie. I was fortunate to
birdie holes 16 and 17 to get back in there.”
Scranton rolled in birdie
putts on hole Nos. 8 and 9, but stumbled with her only bogey on No.
13. That gave Crafter a chance to make a run at the leaderboard. The
Australian toured the Nancy Lopez Legacy Course at The Villages
bogey-free today, while recording birdies on holes 6, 9, 12 and 14.
But Scranton, who celebrated
a birthday earlier in the week, joined Crafter in a tie for the lead
when she birdied the par-4 16th hole. At No. 17, she
laced a 5-iron to within a foot on the par-3 hole to set up her
tap-in birdie. That putt gave her a one-stroke advantage heading
into the final hole.
Knowing she had to birdie
the 18th hole for a chance to tie the lead, Crafter made
a run with her 12-foot birdie attempt, but the ball didn’t drop. The
Aussie tapped in for par to finish solo second.
“I saw that I had a chance,
but I didn’t put the best stroke on it,” said Crafter, who won the
Legends Tour’s Fry’s Desert Classic team event in March with Hall of
Famer Betsy King. “I was a little nervous over the birdie putt on
18, and I think I just misread it.”
While Crafter’s birdie
chance failed to drop on No. 18, Scranton layed up on the par-5
finishing hole and two-putted for the win.
“I didn’t know I was in the
lead until I got up to the 18th green and saw that Jane
was at seven under,” admitted Scranton. “Sometimes that’s the
hardest thing to do – to two-putt instead of just trying to make it
for birdie.”
Tied for third at 6-under
138 were Cindy Figg-Currier (70) of Texas, a three-time Legends Tour
winner, and Sweden’s Liselotte Neumann, who fired the day’s low
round of 6-under 66. Neumann is the 2013 European Solheim Cup Team
Captain.
Ohio’s Barb Mucha (69) and
Wisconsin native Sherri Steinhauer (69) tied for fifth at 5-under
139.
Weekend crowds of 22,000 in
The Villages retirement golf community set a fan attendance record
that hasn’t been matched since the Legends Tour’s inaugural event in
2000, in Green Bay, Wis.
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