MOBILE, Ala. -- As it turns out, experience and patience, not youth, was served in the Avnet LPGA Classic. Maria Hjorth, using a fast start, bettered the field with a solid round of 5-under-par 67 Sunday to overcome a two-shot deficit and claim a two-stroke victory at Magnolia Grove's Crossings Course.
Hjorth produced four birdies in her first seven holes of play, taking the lead and refusing to relinquish that position the rest of the way.
The effort earned Hjorth her second victory on a Robert Trent Jones Golf Trail course -- she won the 2007 Navistar LPGA Classic at Prattville's Capitol Hill Golf Course -- and the winner's check of $195,000.
The 37-year-old golfer from Sweden had won four previous times on tour, most recently the LPGA Championship in December.
"Obviously, it's always great to be a winner," said Hjorth, who plans to donate $20,000 of her winnings to the Red Cross for Alabama tornado relief efforts. "You work very hard for it. When it happens, especially with a field like this where we have the best players in the world playing, teeing it up on Thursday, it's even a better feeling to know you can be out there and play and play against the best."
Sixteen-year-old Alexis Thompson, who started the day tied for the lead with Song-Hee Kim, didn't have the finish she had hoped to produce. A pair of double-bogeys on the back nine, both the result of hitting shots in the water, ended any chance she had of picking up her first victory as a professional. She shot a 6-over-par 78 and finished at 1 under, tied for 19th place.
Kim, who finished second at 8 under, was 1 under for the day and was alone in second place. Na Yeon Choi and Suzann Pettersen finished tied for third at 7 under, with Stacy Lewis taking fifth at 6 under. Katherine Hull, Hee Kyung Seo and Amy Yang all tied for sixth at 5 under.
Some flirted with making a move, but only Hjorth followed through by starting quickly and keeping her composure and patience when the occasional misstep occurred.
"You have to be very, very patient out here this week, because the greens ... are playing very difficult and firm and there are tough pin placements," Hjorth said. "A lot of times, you might not be able to go at the pin, but you have to accept the 20- or 25-foot putt just to make sure you're on the green and give yourself a chance.
"Those are some tough holes out there, so you have to be patient. Also know there are birdie chances. If you make a bogey that you know everybody is going to do, you have birdie chances to catch up with."
Hjorth made her first birdie at the third hole and followed with birdies at 4, 6 and 7 to get to 9 under for the tournament. She added another birdie at the par-4 10th hole to reach 10 under, but gave it back with a bogey at 11. She finished with a birdie at 15, a bogey at the par-5 16th hole and another birdie at the par-3 17th hole.
Disappointment was evident on Thompson's face as she completed her round. Playing in the day's final pair and with a chance to get an LPGA victory even though she isn't a LPGA member -- she doesn't meet the minimum age requirement of 18 -- was an opportunity she had hoped to use to her advantage.
She started with a bogey on the first hole and added another bogey at 3 to drop to 5 under. A birdie at 6 was followed by eight straight pars before trouble arrived. She dropped her tee shot at the par-3 14th hole in the water, leading to a double bogey. On the next hole, an approach shot from an awkward lie led to another double bogey. She finished with a three-putt bogey on the final hole for a 6-over round of 78.
"I just didn't hit it very solid," Thompson said. "My driver wasn't that bad but my irons weren't good. I just wasn't trusting anything. I don't know why, because I wasn't even that nervous surprisingly. It definitely was (a learning experience). I'm only 16, so I'm just learning every tournament."
Pettersen appeared ready to make a late run with birdies at 12, 14 and 15 to get to 7 under heading to the par-5 16th hole. Her second shot at 16 found a green-side bunker and led to a par, which she said "feels like a bogey" on that hole. She made par at 17 and 18 to finish. The rest of the leaders had decent rounds -- Choi shot a bogey-free 3 under for the day, with Lewis and Hull also adding 3-under rounds -- but the day belonged to Hjorth.
"She's a great player and great ball-striker," Pettersen said of Hjorth.
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