Gustafson gains controversial win

Sophie Gustafson beat the best women golfers in the world and then overcame a dispute over a shot she never made to win the Samsung World Championship.

After a sparkling 6-under 64 Sunday, she endured a trip to a television network truck to review video of one of her putts. Then she carted back on the course to address another rules challenge before LPGA officials determined she had topped the field with her 14-under 274, two shots better than Rachel Teske and Beth Daniel.

"I think you should look because you always want to remove the doubt," Gustafson said after winning her fourth U.S. tournament, and first in more than two years.

The 29-year-old Swede ran into a rules dilemma on the 14th green. After standing over a birdie putt, she backed off as the ball, on the edge of a slope, rolled on its own for several feet. An LPGA official allowed her to play the ball from the new spot and she made par, prompting questions whether she should have been assessed a penalty.

After her round, she was taken to the NBC television truck where LPGA officials discussed her actions, reviewed a video of her play with her and determined she did nothing illegal -- that she hadn't grounded her club but merely had taken her stance before putting.

"The tapes were somewhat inconclusive," LPGA rules official Marty Robinson said. "We couldn't tell. From the angle of the camera, we couldn't see."

He said tour officials also questioned Gustafson and her playing partner, Juli Inkster, to try to clarify the situation.

"I wasn't really looking at it. You've got to give her the benefit of a doubt," Inkster said.

"The ball had stopped on the top of the slope and I marked it and then I put it back," Gustafson said. "I knew that it could move and so I never grounded my club. Then it started to kind of not actually move, but to wobble, so I backed off. Probably three to five seconds later, it started to roll down the slope."

"We were not going to dispute her credibility," LPGA official Jim Haley said.

A second dispute surfaced over Gustafson's replacement of a divot off the 15th green. After her round, she was returned there to re-enact what she did and officials ruled she didn't repair a ball mark that was in her line of play. Doing so also would have been a rules violation.

The questions marred an otherwise spectacular round for this year's European Tour player of the year that featured an eagle on the first hole and eight birdies on the Tournament Players Club at The Woodlands, just north of Houston.

Gustafson started the day at 6 under and five shots behind third-round leader Teske and soared into contention quickly. She holed a bunker shot at No. 1 for an eagle, then birdied four of the next five holes. When she converted yet another birdie at the par-4, 385-yard No. 7 -- to go 7 under for the day -- she had grabbed the lead at 13-under for the tournament.

Gustafson finally stumbled at the par-4 No. 9 when her chip shot plopped into a bunker. By the time she left the green with a double-bogey, she had surrendered the lead back to Teske, who had eight straight pars on the front nine after opening with a birdie and made the turn at 12 under.

But Gustafson rebounded with a birdie at the par-4 10th hole to climb back into a tie for the lead with Teske. Then, Gustafson birdied No. 13 as Teske, playing two groups behind her, rolled in a birdie at 12.

Teske, meanwhile, regained the lead with another birdie at the par-5 13th while Gustafson was dealing with her problem at No. 14. But the Swede shook off any controversy with a birdie of her own at No. 15 to go to 14 under and equal Teske.

When Australian-born Teske, looking for her third LPGA victory this year, bogeyed 16 and 17, Gustafson cruised home with a par on No. 18.

"I gave myself a lot of birdie opportunities," Teske said. "I am disappointed to finish with bogeys."

Daniel, whose 33rd career victory this year at the Canadian Women's Open made her at age 46 the oldest winner on the LPGA Tour, birdied No. 1 but never could get closer than a shot off the pace. She finished with a 2-under 70 Sunday.

"I never really got anything going," she said.

Also with a 70 Sunday was Annika Sörenstam, the defending champion who earlier this week qualified for the LPGA Hall of Fame.

She got as close as one shot off the lead, but wound up in the water at the par-4 17th hole, leading to a double bogey and ending her chances of a repeat. She finished at 11-under 277, three shots behind Gustafson

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