Webb Wins Australian Masters

Karrie Webb won the $1.2 million Australian Masters by 10 shots and wrote herself into the record books with a winning total of 26-under-par 262 at the Royal Pines Resort on Queensland's Gold Coast Sunday.

The defending champion shot rounds of 63, 67, 64 and 68 to establish a new LPGA Tour record for 72 holes after breaking the 54-hole record on Saturday.

Scotland's Janice Moodie did her best to keep up and did not have a bogey until the 62nd hole to run second while Becky Iverson was the best of the Americans in this jointly sanctioned event, producing a closing 66 to finish 12 shots from the lead and finish third.

Webb, who won here by five shots last year and also won her last event, the Office Depot at the end of January, produced the best golf ever seen by a woman in Australia and caught the attention of Presidents Cup captain Peter Thomson.

The local girl who had a large gallery from her home town of Ayr following her this week, started her assault on the 5760-meter layout with a course record 63 on Thursday and was never headed. By Saturday night she was 22 under par, taking a shot off the 54-hole record set by American Wendy Ward at the Fieldcrest Cannon Classic in North Carolina in 1997.

She completed the rout Sunday when she took three shots off the 72-hole mark achieved by Se Ri Pak, Ward and Lisa Walters.

Ironically, the Ladies Masters was the title Webb could not win. Despite her success overseas, she had not won on home soil until she finally broke through here last year and, having figured out how to win, treated the defense of her title like a walk in the park.

"Last year was my first win in front of my home crowd and that was very emotional," she said. "This week was unbelievable. I think i is going to take me some time to fully realize that I had no bogeys and only one double bogey for the whole week. I've never done that before."

"It was hard to concentrate. I played pretty well today but after a 63 and a 64, my score did not seem as good. Over the last few holes, all I wanted to do was get in and start the celebrations. The thought of the records was the only thing that kept my concentration going. I knew that the record would be as low as I could go."

"My mind kept wandering. I was thinking about what I would say in my speech over the closing few holes. On the front nine I knew I would have to play some good golf to really close it out. I still wanted to play well and did not want to make bogeys. You don't play 72 holes without a bogey very often. And I definitely did not want to make a bogey on the last."

"I dropped a shot there last year, and in other titles I have won by big margins, I have finished with a bogey. I hit a nice chip because a lot of the green was under water (after rain throughout the day), and I had to carry it over that."

"I don't think I can putt any better than I did this week. I've hit the ball as well in the past but never made anywhere near as many putts. When you putt well, the rest of your game follows. You don't feel like you have to knock it stiff all the time to have a chance of making birdies. I felt this week that if I got within 15 feet, I could just about count it (as a birdie). I've never seen as many puts drop."

The secret, she says, was switching to cross-handed putting after the Australian Open late last year and the results speak for themselves. From four starts on the LPGA Tour this year she has two wins, a second and a seventh.

"I did not think I had much to lose," she said. "I had to try something. I did not think of it as something negative, although the thought went through my mind that years back, in the mid 1980s, that if a player went cross-handed, you thought it was the end of her career because of the yips. Now a lot of people are putting cross-handed. Even some of the putting gurus are teaching young kids to do it."

Watching her amazing performance from his wheelchair this week was Kelvin Haller, her paraplegic coach. A man of few words at the best of times, he just smiled as Webb kept increasing her lead each day.

"Kel is quite speechless right now," she said. "He does not say much on occasions like this. To me it is a dream come true, to be at this level of golf. We don't have to say much. I know he is proud of me and proud he has taught me everything I know."

Because of his disability, Haller can only see her when she returns home to Queensland but he keeps an eye on her swing with videos she sends him on the internet and advises her accordingly.

The majors are her next priority. With her scores this week and both Laura Davies and Jane Geddes calling her the best ball striker in the world, she is a force to be reckoned with in 1999.

"I am off to a good start," she said. "It is my best start in the four years I've been on tour. I don't want to put any pressure on myself to win majors, but I suppose that is the next step for me. Whether it happens this year or in years to come, that is what I am striving to do. "

At the start of the week, Webb and fellow Aussie Jane Crafter, another dual winner of this title who finished fifth Sunday, said they were disappointed that the big names on the U.S. tour decided not to play.

Asked if she thought her efforts would encourage them to come next year, Webb said wryly: "They are probably glad they did not come. I hope that next year we will have a strong field. Nowhere are the players better treated than here. It is obviously one of my favourite tournaments, and I know that the girls who do make the trip down always have a good time."

Moodie admitted she had an impossible mission in the final round and set her sights on second place. "Karrie was running away with it," she said. "There was nothing we could do. It is some consolation that my score would have won here last year. I only had one bogey for the week (at her 62nd hole), and that was a damn good one."

It came from a hooked drive which finished in rough behind trees and left her with no option but to chip out sideways. Her wedge to the green also found rough and she chipped and took one putt to run up a five.

"I'm very happy. I did not play all that well today but got up and down out of bunkers like God. I have made a good move up the money list, and that is going to do my confidence a lot of good for the rest of the year"

"Karrie was incredible. She missed only one fairway and that was because she ran out of room and hit through it. She was great to play with. We joked all the way around today."

On her first trip to Australia Iverson produced her highest finish since winning the Friendly's Classic in 1995. "I felt I played pretty well, considering that I got the flu last week, and I wasn't going to come," she said. "I decided to play and was feeling a little sick when I arrived. But by the time I started playing on Thursday I was feeling okay."

"This is my best finish this year and definitely the highlight of 1999. Last year I did not have any highlights. The year before was about the same. This is a great start to the year for me. It takes a lot of pressure off me. When Karrie was so far ahead at the start of the day, all I wanted to do was shoot a good round and maybe finish in the top five. There was no way to catch her. Her playing for the past four days has been incredible. I've never seen anything like it. It was great achievement. She is going to be very hard to beat for the rest of the year."