Lorena Ochoa came back from a month's break to win her seventh title of the year at the Navistar LPGA Classic on Sunday.
The world number one hadn't won since May and had been relatively invisible in the past couple of months, even before taking a break from competitive golf four weeks ago, but there was no mistaking her slim, fighting figure at the weekend when she stormed back from a poor first round to catch the leaders and finally win a sudden-death play-off against Taiwan's Candy Kung with a two-foot par putt at the second extra hole.
"I had a good feeling that today it was my day and it was going to happen," Ochoa said.
"Sometimes you need to play and have a good time, and that's what I did."
With her batteries recharged after her break, Mexico's latest sporting icon posted a closing two-under 70 that was good enough to match the hard-charging duo of Kung (67) and Cristie Kerr (66) with a 15-under 273 total.
Kerr, one of the USA's major winners this year, was eliminated with a bogey on the first extra hole, however, to leave the final battle between Ochoa and Kung.
"It wasn't easy," said Ochoa, who has a poor record of just two wins in six in LPGA Tour play-offs. "But I'm happy that I won the play-off because I need to improve in my play-off results."
Ochoa came to the Robert Trent Jones Golf Trail's Capitol Hill course, The Senator, in Alabama, without a win from her last seven starts following a dramatic turnaround on her early-season form that had brought her six wins in just nine starts - four of them on the trot.
"For sure," she said, looking back, "I had a few chances to win tournaments before but yes, it's been a little slow the last few months.
"I'm glad I did it this week and hopefully got into a good rhythm to keep me going and help me finish strong."
Sweden's Louise Friberg, who tied for the lead with Ochoa at 13 teeing off on Sunday, fell away with a mediocre 72 to tie for sixth at 13 under with Wendy Doolan (68), Sarah Jane Kenyon (69), Jill McGill (69) and LPGA Championship winner Yani Tseng (70).
Ochoa made a five-foot eagle putt on the par-five eighth and also had a bogey and a birdie in a solid, rather than spectacular round that she finished with six straight pars (eight, in fact, if you included the play-off).
Ochoa won US$210,000 for her 24th career LPGA Tour victory to push her season total to more than $2.5million.
On the second play-off hole, Ochoa two-putted from the back fringe, leaving just a two-footer for par.
A tense Kung, in the meantime, three-putted from about 30 feet - but was not too upset.
"It's been a very good experience for me this week," said Kung, who had forced her way into the play-off with a 22-foot birdie putt at the 18th.
"I haven't played this well for a long time. And it's been solid four days, I would say, or three at least.
"All day I was focused. I was happy that I got myself to the play-off. I didn't even know how big that putt was on 18."
Kerr also birdied 18 to get into the play-off, in her case holing an even longer, 25-foot putt - but then she promptly three-putted the first play-off hole to fall out of the contest.
"It was very disappointing because I only had to two-putt," Kerr said.
"The first putt I hit probably would have ended up maybe five or six feet short, but it hit something and came up horribly short, it was really hard to read and of course I missed it."
Collated final round scores & totals in the LPGA Tour Navistar LPGA Classic, RTJ Golf Trail, Capitol Hill's The Senator, Prattville, Alabama, United States of America
(USA unless stated, par 72):
273 Lorena Ochoa (Mex) 67 67 69 70, Cristie Kerr 66 71 70 66, Candie Kung (Tai) 69 72 65 67 (Ochoa won at second extra hole)
274 Song-Hee Kim (Kor) 68 68 69 69, Shanshan Feng (Chn) 68 70 70 66
275 Louise Friberg (Swe) 67 71 65 72, Wendy Doolan (Aus) 68 73 66 68, Ya-Ni Tseng (Kor) 71 66 68 70, Jill McGill 65 69 72 69, Sarah Jane Kenyon 70 69 67 69
276 Sherri Turner 69 71 67 69, Ji-Young Oh (Kor) 67 70 72 67, Maria Hjorth (Swe) 76 68 63 69, Katherine Hull (Aus) 70 70 67 69
277 In Kyung Kim (Kor) 72 67 71 67, Michele Redman 70 65 70 72, Christina Kim 70 66 69 72, Janice Moodie (Sco) 66 67 72 72, Heather Daly-Donofrio 72 70 66 69
278 Jane Park 65 74 69 70, Karrie Webb (Aus) 72 68 69 69
279 Jee Young Lee (Kor) 74 70 69 66, Giulia Sergas (Ita) 72 70 70 67, Shi Hyun Ahn (Kor) 73 70 65 71, Gloria Park (Kor) 70 70 68 71, Na On Min (Jpn) 71 67 70 71, Mi-Hyun Kim (Kor) 69 72 69 69, Mikaela Parmlid (Swe) 69 69 72 69
280 Stacy Prammanasudh 73 72 69 66, Karen Stupples (Eng) 70 72 68 70, Carri Wood 73 71 66 70, Angela Park (Bra) 71 69 71 69, Hee Young Park (Kor) 72 69 71 68
281 Becky Morgan (Wal) 71 69 70 71, Eunjung Yi (Kor) 71 70 70 70, Jamie Hullett 73 71 70 67, Alena Sharp (Can) 74 70 69 68, Sarah Lee 70 73 70 68
282 Reilley Rankin 72 71 70 69, Charlotte Mayorkas 70 75 70 67, Dorothy Delasin 71 72 69 70, Sandra Gal (Ger) 67 74 72 69, Teresa Lu (Tai) 70 68 75 69, Rachel Hetherington (Aus) 70 73 70 69, Hwa seon Lee (Kor) 76 69 72 65, Allison Fouch 73 70 68 71
283 Michelle Ellis 71 67 74 71, Meena Lee (Kor) 73 71 68 71, Eun Hee Ji (Kor) 71 74 71 67, Nicole Hage 70 71 75 67, Katie Futcher 67 75 71 70, Karine Icher (Fra) 70 70 70 73
284 Mollie Fankhauser 70 74 68 72
285 Joo Mi Kim (Kor) 71 72 74 68, Becky Lucidi 73 71 69 72, Patricia Meunier-Lebouc (Fra) 73 72 71 69, Morgan Pressel 78 67 74 66, Hee-Won Han (Kor) 72 70 73 70, Anna Grzebien 73 72 72 68, Wendy Ward 75 68 70 72, Kim Hall 69 74 70 72
286 Karin Sjodin (Swe) 71 69 72 74
287 Johanna Head (Eng) 76 68 72 71, Jeong Jang (Kor) 65 76 74 72
288 Taylor Leon 69 70 75 74, Ashleigh Simon (Rsa) 75 69 70 74, Beth Allen 72 73 70 73, Amy Hung (Tha) 72 72 75 69
289 Il Mi Chung (Kor) 73 71 75 70
290 Michelle McGann 69 74 71 76, Brittany Lang 76 69 76 69
291 Sung Ah Yim (Kor) 75 70 73 73, Su A Kim 73 72 76 70, Julieta Granada (Par) 73 70 76 72, Meredith Duncan 71 71 76 73
292 Marisa Baena 73 70 76 73, Lisa Strom (Gbr) 70 73 74 75, Lee Ann Walker-Cooper 75 69 78 70
293 Jimin Kang (Kor) 74 70 73 76
294 Jackie Gallagher-Smith 70 75 77 72, Irene Cho 71 74 73 76
300 Soo-Yun Kang (Kor) 70 75 79 76
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