Maria Hjorth hit red-hot form at just the right time to clinch the Avnet LPGA Classic title in Mobile, Alabama.
The 37-year-old began the final day on five-under, two shots behind overnight leaders Alexis Thompson and Song-Hee Kim, but she produced a superb five-under-par round of 67 to finish 10-under, two strokes ahead of South Korean Kim.
Hjorth said afterwards: “I knew it was going to be a pretty tough day again, today.
“The course is playing hard. Even though the rough is not very thick, the greens are very firm and there are some tough pin positions. So I knew just had to be patient.
“Obviously my goal for the weekend was trying to get double digits, which is pretty hard to do. I waited, and I didn't think it was going to be enough for a win, but obviously it was so I'm very excited about that.
“I played good. I've been driving the ball really well all week. I made a few little mistakes with some chipping and little three-putts, but it's easy to do on these greens. I think a lot of people have done that.”
Hjorth was in scintillating form over the front nine with back-to-back birdies at the par-four third and par-five fourth, and she repeated that feat at the par-five sixth and par-four seventh to leapfrog overnight leaders Thompson and Kim before the turn.
The Swede showed no signs of letting up with a birdie at the par-four 10th before a slip-up at the par-four 11th record her first bogey of the final round, and she dropped another shot at the par-five 16 but that was sandwiched by birdies at the par-four 15th and par-three 17th and that was enough to land her the crown.
Kim kept herself within touching distance with a birdie at the par-four fifth, but bogeys at the par-four ninth and 12th ultimately proved costly and an eagle at the 16th proved to be little more than consolation as she signed for a last-round 71 and second place.
Meanwhile, Thompson’s challenge collapsed dramatically as she racked up three bogeys and back-to-back double bogeys at the par-three 14th and par-four 15th, with one birdie for a final-round 78 that saw her plummet down the leaderboard to one-under.
Final leaderboard:
-10 Maria Hjorth, Sweden 70 74 67 67
-8 Song-Hee Kim, South Korea 67 72 70 71
-7 Na Yeon Choi, South Korea 69 72 71 69
-7 Suzann Pettersen, Norway 72 68 71 70
-6 Stacy Lewis, United States 68 71 74 69
-5 Katherine Hull, Australia 72 71 71 69
-5 Hee Kyung Seo, South Korea 73 74 65 71
-5 Amy Yang, South Korea 70 68 72 73
-4 Shanshan Feng, China 72 71 73 68
-4 Paige MacKenzie, United States 70 71 71 72
-4 Sandra Gal, Germany 70 67 75 72
-4 Karen Stupples, Great Britain 68 71 72 73
