Azahara Muñoz has become the third Spanish player to win a tournament on the U.S. Women’s Tour (LPGA Tour) after winning the prestigious Sybase Match Play Championship, in which she has been eliminating rivals until winning with a brilliant comeback against the Taiwanese Candie Kung. The player from Malaga, trained in the Marbella clubs Guadalmina Golf and San Pedro Golf and considered the best Spanish golfer in history in her amateur stage, was dodging high-level rivals from the first day to stand in a last round that gave her a tough semifinal against the American Morgan Pressel (2/1), who in the 12th was 2 up.
Three birdies by the Andalusian in the last three holes made a sensational comeback although the match was shrouded in controversy as Pressel was penalized for slow play on the 12th hole and saw her lead eroded at that point. Munoz and Pressel were both playing slow, with Munoz being noticeably the slower. After nine holes they were warned by the officials and put on the clock after the 11th hole. The 12th hole changed everything. Pressel won with par to take a 3-stroke lead. However, before she could on hole 13, course official Doug Brecht informed her that she was going to be penalized for slow play. She had taken 2:09 minutes for her three shots, 39 seconds over the 30-second limit per shot. In match play, the penalty is the loss of the previous hole, and that gave the point to the also-slow Munoz. She was then 1 down and back in contention.
But the penalty did not end the controversy. Muñoz evened the match with a birdie on the 15th, a hole that was also stopped when Pressel claimed that the Spaniard touched the line of her putt before hitting the ball. The match referee, Marty Robinson, sent two officials to review video from camera angles on each hole. He then said they could detect no evidence of infractions. Munoz then holed his putt. Pressel lost the match after making bogey on the next two holes, missing a putt for 3-foot par on the 17th.
The Sybase, which was played by holes, brought together the 64 best female golfers in the world. The Andalusian golfer pocketed a prize of 375,000 dollars. Azahara Muñoz defeated Lndsey Wright, Karrie Webb, Jodi Ewart, Stacy Lewis, Morgan Pressel and Candie Kung in successive rounds. In the final, Candie Kung, who defeated her compatriot Yani Tseng, the great favorite, in the third round, was waiting for her. The Taiwanese held a slim lead during the first round, but in the back nine Azahara Muñoz turned the match around. She won the 11th, 12th and 16th and left without effect the attempted reaction of the oriental golfer.
The player from Malaga reached the semifinals after successively eliminating the Australians Lindsey Wright (4/3) and Karrie Webb (2/1), the American Stacy Lewis (5/4) and the English Jodi Ewart (2/1).
The other two Spaniards in the tournament, Beatriz Recari and Belén Mozo, lost their first match and dropped out of this tournament, which has brought together the best golfers in the world. With this triumph, Azahara Muñoz has become the third Spaniard to win in the LPGA after Marta Figueras-Dotti and Beatriz Recari. This season the Andalusian had already been close to victory, with a second and a fourth place in recent weeks.
This result culminated an intense weekend in terms of Spanish participation in the different professional circuits, with good performances by Rafael Cabrera-Bello in the Volvo World Match Play at Finca Cortesín, belonging to the European Men’s Tour (European Tour), and by the amateur Clara Baena, winner of the Banesto Tour of the CNG.
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