Notes: Lewis misses bonus, but wins LPGA Triple Crown
NAPLES, Fla. – Stacy Lewis achieved what she came for this week.
She won the Ladies Professional Golf Association's Triple Crown - the Vare Tophy for lowest scoring average, the Rolex Player of the Year and the money title.
What she didn't get was the $1 million bonus. That went to Lydia Ko, who won the CME Group Tour Championship.
Officially, Lewis finished with a 69.532 scoring average as the LPGA had four players under 70 for the first time. She won $2,539,039.
"I came into the week wanting to win these three awards," Lewis said. "The $1 million would have been nice but I'll take the three over $1 million any day.
"I didn't have my best stuff all week, even today I had to kind of grind it out. I'm really glad it's over, it was hard to play the last four days."
Tough loss: Spain's Carlota Ciganda tried to look on the bright side.
But she realized she had great chance to win the LPGA's season-ending event.
Ciganda actually had two great chances to win this tournament. She missed a 3-footer on No. 17, then missed a 5-footer on the third playoff hole.
On the fourth playoff, her 8-iron shot rolled into an unplayable lie.
"The first putt I wanted to go left center and it stayed right," she said. "The second I think I pushed. But I think I also had some great putts that helped me get to this point."
Ciganda wanted to win her first tournament after 48 starts on the LPGA tour. But she felt she built momentum heading into 2015.
"It's just golf," she said. "I'll remember the great shots and playing well in a tournament again.
"But I'll also remember those two putts."
Tough loss, II: The defeat also was difficult for Paraguay's Julieta Granada, who led in the second and third rounds for the first time in her career.
She trailed by two shots but got into the playoff by making birdies on Nos. 13, 14 and 15.
After just missing a birdie putt on the second playoff hole, Granada was eliminated in the third playoff when her 6-footer curled out.
"I think I hit some great shots on 18," she said. "That's a really long hole for me. The one putt, I left a little short. The second putt, I thought I really had it. The greens slowed down and I think grabbed it."
Granada had to adapt and focus on her game because while she averaged about 225 yards on her drives in the tournament, Ko was about 240 and Ciganda 275.
"That's the secret," she said. "I can't look how far Carlota hits it. It helped playing with Morgan (Pressel) because we have the same game and we played so much in junior golf. I just had to stick with the game plan."
Two months off: Michelle Wie and Mo Martin of Naples had the same thought when they were finishing their final round Sunday.
"It's vacation time."
The LPGA Tour won't be back in action until Jan. 28-31 – the Coates Golf Championship in Ocala.
Wie finished the CME Group Tour Championship at seven under par, tied with Sandra Gal for fifth place following a 70.
"I was walking down the 18th fairway daydreaming about what I was going to do on vacation," Wie said. "For the next month I plan to shut everything off."
Wie finished tied for fifth in the tournament and third in the CME Globe standings.
"I can always nick pick the year but in the grand scheme of things everything is pretty good," Wie said. "Today I can't complain, 2-under par, Tiburon was tough and did not give up a lot of birdies."
Martin took two steps out of the scoring trailer Sunday, skipped twice, and pronounced, "I'm on vacation".
Martin, playing with a splint on her injured left thumb, finished the championship 5-over after shooting a 75 in the final round.
"The last few events I've just been scrubbing along with the thumb so I'm going to take six weeks off and go scuba diving," said Martin, who lives at Grey Oaks Country Club. "It's been a great week, staying at home and no packing.
"Then today a veteran who is part of the Wounded Warrior Project gave me his badge as I was leaving the 17th hole, which I'll keep forever."
Kempton and Handel write for The (Fort Myers, Fla.) New-Press