LPGA Tour Nabisco Championship: Patricia Meunier Lebouc won her first major after holding off world number one Annika Sorenstam of Sweden in the final round of the $1.6 million Kraft Nabisco Championship on Sunday.
The Frenchwoman, three shots ahead overnight, returned a closing one-over-par 73 to finish seven-under on 281, one ahead of Sorenstam (71) in the first women's major of the season at the Mission Hills Country Club.
Meunier Lebouc joins Catherine Lacoste, who was an amateur when she won the 1967 US Open, as the only French players to have claimed a women's major. She also picked up a cheque for $240,000.
"This is just unbelievable," she said. "I have won a major championship and it feels so good. This makes all the practice and hard work worthwhile. My husband and I have also made a lot of sacrifices to come to America."
Her husband, Antoine Lebouc, a former European Tour player and now her coach, and her English caddie, Joanne Berry, joined Meunier Lebouc for the traditional winner's leap into the lake at the 18th.
Sorenstam just missed out in her bid for an historic third successive victory in the event. The Swede held a one-shot lead with six holes to play but there was a two-stroke swing at the 13th when she three-putted while Meunier Lebouc sank a 20-foot birdie putt from off the green.
