Heather Bowie beats Gloria Park in playoff

The more Heather Bowie kept telling herself she couldn't win, the closer she inched to a breakthrough victory.

Bowie won her first LPGA Tour title Sunday, ending a six-year drought by parring the third hole of a playoff with Gloria Park in the Jamie Farr Owens Corning Classic.

Fighting back tears, the winner hugged and kissed caddie/boyfriend Jeremy Young after hitting a short putt to clinch the victory in her 138th start on the tour.

``The longer it goes, the harder it is,'' she said. ``And honestly, I kept telling myself all day, 'You're not going to win. You can't win this thing. You're too far back.' So that I wouldn't think about it.''

Park made things easy for Bowie, hitting a low hook out of the rough and into a creek on the par-5 18th hole. After hitting clutch putts on the first two extra holes to extend the playoff, Park triple-bogeyed the last hole.

Bowie, who earned a career-best $180,000 and a three-year LPGA Tour exemption, closed with a 4-under 67 to match Park at 10-under 274.

``I think the first one has to be the hardest,'' she said. ``I don't know. Hopefully, I'll get to experience that second, third and fourth and I'll know that the first one is the hardest.''

Park finished with a 66 to force the playoff, birdieing the 17th hole in regulation to pull into a four-way tie.

``After the birdie at 17 I thought if I could make one more birdie, I could be right there,'' said Park, who has won twice in her six years on tour.

Bowie has always been seen as a promising star who never lived up to that promise, a two-time NCAA champion at Texas who forgot how to win in the pressure cooker of pro golf.

She faltered down the stretch in regulation with a costly bogey at the 17th to drop into the four-way tie, then plugged away while Sung Ah Yim and Hee-Won Han posted late bogeys to fall out of the logjam.

Han, who started the day with a two-shot advantage, led by four strokes with eight holes to play before collapsing. She had three bogeys and a double bogey in the final eight holes.

``I'm disappointed,'' she said. ``I played bad. No reason.''

She fell from the four-way tie with a three-putt bogey at 17, with Yim bogeying the closing hole. She charged a long putt that ran 6 feet past the hole, then missed the comebacker.

``I tried a little bit harder on that (first) putt,'' she said. ``I'm not mad. I did what I wanted to do.''

Bowie and Park parred the first extra hole, Park saving par by rolling in a 10-foot putt to extend the playoff.

On the second extra hole -- the same 17th she had bogeyed less than an hour earlier -- Bowie hit a wedge that checked up just inches from the cup. She tapped in for birdie, but Park matched her with a 20-footer.

Park found trouble with her drive on the third playoff hole.

``There was very deep rough on the right side,'' she said. ``The ball was sitting really, really low. I was thinking about just chipping it out. But it was a playoff, so I said, 'Just hit it.'''

The tangled grass caught the head of her rescue club and the ball went on a low trajectory into a creek. She took a drop, then hit her fourth onto a white towel right of the green. After a free drop, she chipped over the green, chipped back on and two-putted for her 8.

``Overall, I played really good -- except for that last playoff hole,'' she said.

Bowie hit her first two shots into the fairway, then hit safely onto the green and two-putted from 22 feet.

She said she hoped she learned something that would help her in such pressure-packed situations in the future.

``I hope I'm less nervous because I certainly felt like I was going to throw up,'' she said.

Paula Creamer shot the tournament's low round, a 64, to tie Jeong Jang (72) at 8-under 276. Defending champion Meg Mallon (72), Leta Lindley (71) and Pat Hurst (69) followed at 7 under.

Amateur Morgan Pressel finished with a 70 and was at 282. Brittany Lang, making her pro debut, shot a 75 to end up at 284.

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