Donald’s Strong Finish Wins Honda

Luke Donald was the last player on the driving range Sunday afternoon, grinning after a series of perfect shots.

He flashed a bigger smile walking up the 18th fairway five hours later, knowing he was about to win the Honda Classic at Palm Beach Gardens, Fla.

Donald used consecutive birdies midway through his back nine to take the outright lead at 11 under, made a great scrambling par on the difficult 16th to preserve the margin and held off Geoff Ogilvy by two shots for his second PGA Tour victory.

A three-under final round of 69 was good enough for the Englishman, who hadn’t won on tour since the 2002 Southern Farm Bureau Classic and pocketed a winner’s check of $990,000. He made a 10-foot birdie putt at the 13th and a 25-footer on the 14th for the lead, then holed a slippery 18-footer to save par on the 16th.

All that, followed by an approach to about four feet for a birdie on 18, was good enough to hold off a field that was tightly bunched all day.

“I knew if I just played Luke Donald golf, it’d be good enough,” Donald said.

Ogilvy shot a 69 to cap his wild week, which featured one double eagle, three eagles and three double bogeys. It was nearly enough for him to win his second straight start. After winning only once in his first 133 PGA Tour events, he won two weeks ago at the Match Play Championship.

“I made some good putts, and for the most part I played really well,” Ogilvy said. “I got lucky a couple times. But how do you forget the week you had your first double eagle? It was good.”

David Toms shot a 69 to finish at nine under, three shots off the pace and tied with Billy Mayfair (72), who had entered the day tied with Donald.

Tom Pernice (68) wound up in fifth at eight under, former Honda champion Dudley Hart (69) was seven under, and three players -- Stephen Ames (68), Frank Lickliter (71) and Jeff Gove (74) -- shared seventh place at six under.

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Annika Sorenstam opened her LPGA Tour season with a successful title defense in the MasterCard Classic at Huixquilucan, Mexico, closing with a two-under 70 for a one-stroke victory over Helen Alfredsson and Seon Hwa Lee.

Sorenstam, even par and tied for the lead after nine holes, had three birdies in four holes to take the tournament with an eight-under 208.

The event at Bosque Real Country Club, outside Mexico City, marked Sorenstam’s first LPGA Tour start since winning the ADT Championship in November and her first competitive appearance since teaming with Liselotte Neumann in January to win the Women’s World Cup in South Africa.

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Up next

PGA TOUR

Bay Hill Invitational

* When: Thursday-Sunday.

* Where: Bay Hill Club, Orlando, Fla.

* Defending champion: Kenny Perry.

LPGA TOUR

Safeway International

* When: Friday-Sunday.

* Where: Superstition Mountain, Ariz.

* Defending champion: Annika Sorenstam.

CHAMPIONS TOUR

Toshiba Classic

* When: Friday-Sunday.

* Where: Newport Beach Country Club.

* Defending champion: Mark Johnson.