By Jeremy Harness

AP photo: Haru Nomura holds up the LPGA Swinging Skirts 2016 Trophy at the 18th hole at Lake Merced Golf Club after winning the tournament

DALY CITY, Calif. – Haru Nomura spoke through an interpreter for a good deal of her post-tournament interview, but in describing the reaction that she got when draining a crucial 75-foot birdie putt, she did not need one.

“My caddie said, ‘Holy (expletive)!’”

The putt could not have come at a better time, as she had seen her five-shot lead dwindle to a single stroke after a string of three bogeys in a four-hole span. Sensing that she really needed to find a way to shut the faucet off somehow, her caddie gave her a hearty pep talk immediately following the last bogey at the 11^th.

It seemed to work beautifully. She hit her tee shot at the par-three 12^th to the back of the green and then drained the monster downhill putt and pushed her lead out to two shots. She then added another birdie two holes later to give herself just enough cushion to win the Swinging Skirts LPGA Classic at a very cold and windy Lake Merced Golf Club.

“I like windy situations,” Nomura said. “I like tough situations, so when I spoke to the caddie, even before the championship last week in Hawaii, I told him, ‘I’m going to come here and win this tournament because I really like this course.’”

“I’m glad that I was able to deliver on what I told my caddie.”

Strong winds engulfed the entire course this weekend, and Sunday presented the toughest conditions and wreaked havoc on scorecards all the way up and down the field. In fact, there were only 10 players who shot under par in the final round. 

“I said, ‘Hey, if I was half my weight, I’d probably already be flying away like a balloon,” said Lydia Ko, who celebrated her 19^th birthday Sunday.

South Africa’s Lee-Anne Pace had built some momentum going into Sunday’s final round, but that all went up in smoke as her round got under way, as she bogeyed each of the first five holes. However, she managed to right the ship rather nicely following the setback, birdieing two of the next four holes and then playing the back nine at one-under to post a two-over 74, good enough for a second-place finish.

“I think I just didn’t trust it on the first five holes,” Pace said. “I didn’t realize the putting was going to be that difficult. The ball was moving a little bit, so it was difficult to just try and make a good stroke on it.

“I missed a couple of short ones quickly, so that set me back a little bit. But after we started making the putts and getting a few back on the back nine, everything was fine.”

Ko stayed in contention until the final round, but she just did not have enough to make up the ground that she needed to in order to defend her title. As was the case with Pace, Ko stumbled out of the gate on Sunday. She bogeyed four of the first seven holes, and even though she played the remaining 11 holes at one-under, the damage had been done.

“I don’t know if any players could get anything going (Sunday),” Ko said. “Sometimes you’re struggling and you need to (just) make bogey. (Sunday was ) not the day where you think you’re going to get really hot. If you do, that’s great.

“I see there were a couple under-par scores, and I think that’s almost like a 65 or a 63.”

At one point, Na Yeon Choi, who started her final round at seven-under, was only one stroke behind Nomura after making a birdie at the par-five 14^th to draw even in her round, but that hope vanished when she bogeyed the 15^th just as Nomura birdied the 14^th right behind her, and then a double-bogey on the very next hole sealed her fate. She finished the tournament tied for third at four-under.