<div><p>Anna Nordqvist won the LPGA Tour Championship Monday as Lorena Ochoa seized her fourth straight Player of the Year award by one point over Jiyai Shin.</p><p>Nordqvist, 22, fired a final-round 65 to finish at 13-under 203 in the tournament reduced to 54 holes because of heavy rain over the weekend.</p><p>Ochoa was two strokes back on 205 and secured the top player honor when South Korea's Shin couldn't chip in from the front of the 18th green.</p><p>Shin led Ochoa by eight points (156-148) in the Player of the Year race entering the season-ending event.</p><p>Once Ochoa was sure of finishing second in the tournament, Shin had to place no worse than seventh to win Player of the Year.</p><p>Shin settled for a par on the last hole completing a 73 that left her tied for eighth on 210. That gave Ochoa the player award by 160-159 points.</p><p>Shin had already wrapped up Rookie of the Year honors, and is the first South Korean to finish first on the LPGA money list.</p><p>Although the 21-year-old Shin couldn't join Nancy Lopez as the only players to earn Rookie of the Year and Player of the Year in the same season, she remained upbeat.</p><p>"I learned a lot from this year," Shin said. "I need more focus, concentration, and everything. I really made my goals. I just missed player of the year, but I still had a good year."</p><p>Ochoa also won her fourth straight Vare Trophy for lowest scoring average. Ochoa and Shin were neck and neck in that race coming into the tournament.</p><p>Nordqvist, meanwhile, earned her second LPGA victory and made it through the season without missing a cut in 15 starts. She also won the LPGA Championship this year.</p><p>Shin and Nordqvist played in the day's final group, right behind Ochoa. The Houstonian Golf and Country Club was still water-logged after heavy rain on Friday and Saturday. Players were allowed to lift, clean and place their balls.</p><p>Nordqvist surged to the lead at 12 under with five straight birdies from the eighth.</p><p>She gave back a shot at 13, then added back-to-back birdies at 14 and 15. With the victory in her grasp, Ochoa and Shin continued their duel.</p><p>"I definitely tried to be aggressive," Nordqvist said. "It was pretty tight up the leaderboard, so you were really going to have to shoot low in order to pull it off.</p><p>"I'm just very, very happy that I did."</p><p>Momentum seemed to be swinging Shin's way when Ochoa needed two strokes to get out of a greenside bunker on the par-three 17th. Ochoa sank a bogey putt as Shin and Nordqvist watched from the tee.</p><p>But Shin also found a bunker on 17, blasted out short of the green and bogeyed.</p><p>Ochoa landed her approach at 18 about 16 feet from the pin, and gave the leaderboard a hard look as she walked to the green.</p><p>She and caddie Greg Johnston discussed the situation before Ochoa stepped up and drained her putt.</p><p>Shin's second shot at 18 was short of the green. Her chip missed the hole by inches and Ochoa patted her heart and hugged Johnston.</p><p>Korea's Na Yeon Choi (64) and second-round leader Kristy McPherson (70) finished tied for third on 206.</p><p>Sweden's Sophie Gustafson and South Koreans Song-Hee Kim and Hee Young Park were tied on 209, and Shin was joined on 210 by Japan's Ai Miyazato, Norway's Suzanne Pettersen and Taiwan's Yani Tseng.</p><p>Shin may have been feeling the pressure s she struggled with her putter on the front nine. She didn't make a birdie until the 11th, when Ochoa was already within a shot of the lead.</p><p>Back-to-back bogeys by Ochoa at eight and nine opened the door for Nordqvist. Ochoa rebounded with a birdie at 15 to set up the dramatic finish.</p><img src="http://admatch-syndication.mochila.com/images/ad.gif?aid=64107679&bid=informcom" /></div><div id="copyright"><div>

Copyright 2009  <a href="http://www.afp.com/english/links/?pid=copyright">AFP Global Edition</a></div></div>