Tiger’s text inspires Pettersen

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This article was published 08/09/2009 (6179 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

CALGARY — Suzann Pettersen went to bed Saturday night with a five-shot lead under her pillow in the CN Canadian Women’s Open.

But the 28-year-old Norwegian was looking for words of inspiration to feather her cushion, what with three second-place finishes this season and her being winless on the LPGA Tour since 2007.

So she tuned her television into the U.S. Open and listened to what some of the tennis underdogs had to say about continuing to grind, about never giving up and not to fear anything.

The best message, however, arrived bright and early Sunday morning when PGA Tour star and friend Tiger Woods sent her a text message imploring her to “keep doing your s .”

“So I guess I did keep doing my s ,” she smiled, not long after protecting that five-shot lead en route to a career-high payday of $412,500 US at spectator-packed Priddis Greens on a cool, breezy Sunday afternoon.

Pettersen finished the tour’s second richest tournament, behind only the U.S. Women’s Open, at 15-under-par 269 following a sometimes sloppy 1-under 70. Japan’s dynamic duo of Momoko Ueda and Ai Miyazato, Americans Morgan Pressel and Angela Stanford, and veteran Aussie Karrie Webb, who won at Priddis Greens in 1999, finished in a five-way tie for second at 274.

Webb, the 34-year-old with more than $14 million in career earnings, started the round six shots back but was the only player to get in touch with Pettersen as she used birdies at the second, fourth and fifth holes to close the gap to three shots.

It proved to be the end of the threat as Webb went into a holding pattern and Pettersen used a chip-in birdie from just off the green at the par-4 10th to ignite a three-birdie run, move to 17-under for the tournament and claim a six-shot lead with six holes to play.

Throw in a tricky two-putt from 40 feet for par at the ninth when Webb failed to sink an eight-footer for birdie and you had the turning point.

“It felt like a scrambling round,” said Pettersen. “I only hit 13 greens, chipped in once, missed some short putts, just kind of bad putts. Obviously some nerves. Nine was obviously a good two-putt and there was great momentum at 10, 11 and 12. I thought that was the turnaround that kind of brought momentum to my side and gave me a nice little cushion there.

“I walked off the ninth green and my caddy said, ‘Just play some golf’ and I hit a terrible approach shot into 10. And then I get a break, then I hit a great shot at 11 and two great shots at 12.”

From there it was pretty much a case of playing out the string, although she was seen to heave a sigh of relief when she tapped in for par at the 18th hole.

“This feels absolutely great,” she said. “I’ve been playing very good since 2007. I gave myself a lot of chances to win tournaments and, like I’ve been saying, if you put yourself in position often enough, you’ll figure out how to close the deal.”

— Canwest News Service