Michelle Wie Lands Within Top 10 in the World

For the first time, Patricia Meunier-Lebouc (France) got the title to the Kraft Nabisco Championship, beating the world`s most powerful opponent Annika Sorenstam, and preventing her third feat.

The surprise came out in the final round 4 of the Nabisco Championship, which took place yesterday at the Nabisco Dinah Shore Mission Hills Country Club in Rancho Mirage, California.

Using her father`s and husband`s last names together, Meunier-Lebouc showed fluctuations. She paused a little with one-over par. But, she succeeded in brushing off Sorenstam by maintaining the one-shot lead in the 13th and 14th hole where her rival made mistakes of consecutive bogeys, ruining her own game.

Prior to this, Meunier-Lebouc had won 5 tours in Europe, and won another championship in the U.S. last year.

Starting the final round with three-shot lead over Sorenstam, Meunier-Lebouc fortunately got out a chip-shot eagle in the second hole. But in the third, she made a double bogey. On the other hand, Sorenstam caught up by one shot with her successful birdies in the first and second hole. Then, Sorenstam got ahead of Meunier-Lebouc in the 12th with one-shot lead.

But the final result came in the 13th. On the green edge, Meunier-Lebouc`s 4m putting got sucked into the cup, while Sorenstam out of anxiety lost her 120cm par-putting to everyone`s surprise.

Once snatching back the lead, Meunier-Lebouc put Sorenstam further behind in the 14th hole, where Sorenstam committed two consecutive bogeys. Then, without making any mistake, Meunier-Lebouc secured her lead.

In an interview after the final round, she officially requested reporters to correct their pronunciation of her husband`s last name, Lebouc.

In the meanwhile, Michelle Wie ruined her putting, but ranked herself at 9th. Challenging for the Grand Slam as the youngest player, Se Ri Pak just recorded 5-over 77, sliding back to 15th.

Young-Sik Ahn ysahn@donga.com