Green bags 5th LPGA title

LOS ANGELES — Hannah Green closed with a 5-under 66 to clinch the LPGA Tour Championship in Los Angeles for her fifth LPGA Tour victory and second of the year.

A year after making a 25-foot birdie on the final hole of regulation and winning on the second hole of a playoff, Green took the drama out of the victory.

The Australian professional golfer began the key run with a chip-in birdie on the par-3 12th and made a 6-foot birdie putt, AP reported.

Then, after Stark bogeyed the par-4 16th two groups ahead, Green ran in a 25-footer for eagle from the fringe on 15 to open a four-stroke lead, and she made it 5 under in five holes with a birdie on 16.

Stark birdied her last two holes for a 68. The 24-year-old Swede also finished second last week outside Houston in The Chevron Championship, two strokes behind top-ranked Nelly Korda in the first major of the year.

Grace Kim, four strokes ahead entering the weekend, closed 76-77 without making a birdie the last two days. She tied for 25th.

Elsewhere, Rory McIlroy and Shane Lowry won the Zurich Classic of New Orleans team event, beating Chad Ramey and Martin Trainer with a par on the first hole of a playoff.

Trainer pushed a 6-foot par putt to the right of the cup to end it, with Lowry and McIlroy sharing a smiling embrace on the green.

The 34-year-old McIlroy, playing in the event for the first time, won his 25th PGA Tour title and first of the season. Lowry claimed his third PGA Tour victory.

The Irish tandem closed with a 4-under 68 in the alternate-shot final round to match Ramey and Trainer at 25-under 263.

Ramey and Trainer began the day tied for 27th and shot to the top of the leaderboard with nine birdies between the seventh and 18th holes.

They tied the alternate-shot tournament record of 63, but then had to wait nearly three hours to see if their lead would stand up.

They struggled to execute on the playoff hole. Trainer pulled his drive into the left rough, Ramey also yanked his approach left off the cart path and into the wall below the suites around the 18th green. Trainer then chipped short before Ramey finally got onto the green.

Ryan Brehm and Mark Hubbard missed the playoff by one shot when Brehm’s birdie putt from the fringe narrowly missed to the right.

Former BYU teammates Patrick Fishburn and Zach Blair, the 54-hole leaders, were tied for the lead until failing to birdie the par-5 16th and taking double bogey on the par-3 17th.

“It’s absolutely amazing,” McIlroy said on CBS Sports. “We’ve had an awesome week here in New Orleans. The crowds have been absolutely amazing, to get the support we’ve had out there. We’ve had so much fun while doing it and it’s just a bonus to win at the end.

“It couldn’t be better than to do it with this man alongside me.”

Lowry added: “It’s great. It felt much-needed. Coming into the week we felt we could do with a big jump for the FedEx Cup, let’s get 400 points each and that’s what we’ve done.

“I feel a little bit bad taking them because Rory carried me, but I’m taking them.”

The American pair had been among the early starters, powering 26 places up the leaderboard with a round of 63 that included seven birdies on the back nine, but the near three-hour wait to see if their score would hold up saw them come into the play-off looking rusty.