Hot stretch puts Pettersson in winner's circle

It wasn't too surprising to see Carl Pettersson rally from six shots behind with 11 holes to play to beat Dean Wilson yesterday in the Canadian Open at St. George's.

Wilson, a 40-year-old journeyman playing on a sponsor's exemption, appeared to be running out of steam as the final round progressed even though he entered it with a four-shot lead. You had the sneaking suspicion that things might unravel before he could earn what would have been only his second PGA Tour victory. It was just a matter of time.

Pettersson, a 32-year-old Swede coming off a stellar 60 on Saturday, admitted being worried by the common belief among pro golfers that it's hard to follow a low score with another solid round. But that wasn't the case the last three times a player shot a 60 on the PGA Tour before Pettersson. In fact, two out of the three times it led to a victory. Steve Stricker followed a 60 with a 66 in winning the John Deere Classic this year. Zach Johnson followed a 60 with a 70 on his way to winning the Valero Texas Open in 2009 and he also followed a 60 with a 68 on his way to finishing second in the 2007 Tour Championship.

"I still can't believe I won the tournament," Pettersson said two days after making the cut by a stroke after opening rounds of 71 and 68. "I know it's difficult to shoot another low one after a round like that, so I was just trying to downplay it. I just tried to stay calm and (said), `Whatever happens today, happens.'"

What happened is Pettersson played a stretch of eight holes starting on the eighth in 6 under to take the lead as Wilson played them in 2 over. On that same stretch of eight holes on Saturday, Pettersson was 8 under on his way to a 60 that catapulted him into contention.

Pettersson, a former North Carolina State player, earned $918,000 for his first victory since the 2008 Wyndham Championship. He also won the 2005 Chrysler Championship and 2006 Memorial.

Wilson, who closed with a 72 after three consecutive 65s, turned in his second career runner-up PGA Tour performance. His first came in 2006, at the Valero Texas Open, the same year he won his lone PGA Tour title, The International, outside Denver.

"If you would have told me before the week that I could be second alone, I would have been tickled," Wilson said. "Being in the position that I was, I'm a little disappointed. But still, lots of positives."

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Didn't watch much of the Evian Masters but it would have been fun to see Morgan Pressel (70) or 15-year-old Alexis Thompson (67) win. The way it worked out they had to share second place with Na Yeon Choi (66).

The winner by a shot was Jiyai Shin, who after finishing third four times and fifth three times this year scored her first victory by birdieing the par-5 18th hole and closing with a 67.

Pressel, the third-round leader, eagled the par-4 fifth hole, but let her advantage slip away by going 1 over on the back nine. Even so, it is good to see another American making strides on a big stage, following the recent examples of Paula Creamer and Cristie Kerr.

Pressel's improved play would seem to a by-product of her increased length off the tee. While still among the LPGA's top 10 most accurate drivers, she has jumped from 154th in driving distance in 2008 to 96th this season by adding about 13 yards to her drives.

Pressel credits most of the improvement to her swing coach, Adam Schriber. It just so happens that Schriber is also the swing coach of Anthony Kim.

In just her third professional start, Thompson was looking to become the youngest player to win an LPGA event. The teenager from Coral Springs, Fla., missed the cut in her professional debut at the ShopRite LPGA Classic and finished tied for 10th at the U.S. Women's Open two weeks ago. Thompson will next see action on the LPGA as a sponsor's invite at the CN Canadian Women's Open.

Thompson’s chances seemed to end when she bogeyed the 16th hole to drop to 11 under, but she made back-to-back birdies and was the clubhouse leader at 13 under before Shin sank her birdie on the final hole to move to 14 under.

Information from PGATOUR.com, GolfObserver.com, GolfChannel.com and the Associated Press contributed to this post.