Lincicome wins LPGA season opener in playoff

(Reuters) – Long-hitting Brittany Lincicome came agonizingly close to tying an LPGA Tour scoring record before winning the season-opening Pure Silk Bahamas LPGA Classic in a playoff with fellow American Lexi Thompson on Sunday.

Lincicome clinched her seventh LPGA title with a birdie on the first extra hole, the par-five 18th at the Ocean Club course on Paradise Island, where Thompson failed to get up and down from behind the green and settled for a par.

The duo finished the 72 regulation holes on 26-under 266, just one shy of the LPGA record in relation to par of 27-under set by Swede Annika Sorenstam at the 2001 Standard Register and matched by South Korean Kim Sei-young at last year’s Founders Cup.

Lincicome, a double major champion, closed with a five-under 68 highlighted by seven birdies while Thompson carded a 70.

“It was an awesome day,” Lincicome told reporters after playing the last few holes in regulation in strengthening winds as a storm approached. “Hopefully that continues.”

(Reporting by Mark Lamport-Stokes in St. Augustine, Florida; Editing by Andrew Both)