ASSOCIATED PRESS
JACKSON, Miss. -- Vince Whaley stepped into the water to play a shot and a 6-foot spectator with a full set of teeth was watching closely. He still turned his back on the alligator and saved par.
Whaley figures the gator was about 20 feet away in the water when he played his shot from the bank on the par-5 11th hole Sunday in the Sanderson Farms Championship.
He was one shot out of the lead at the time, and yes, he was fully aware of the gator eyeing him, the full head above water.
"Well, thankfully my back was to him so I could focus on the shot for a second," Whaley said, adding he had "a lot of trust" in his caddie monitoring the situation.
The gator never moved. Whaley splashed out short of the putting surface and got up-and-down for par. He wound up with a 67 and tied for third.
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And the plan if the gator had moved?
"The plan was to get the hell out of the water," he said.
Hwang wins in Hawaii
HONOLULU -- Youmin Hwang won the LOTTE Championship for her first LPGA Tour title, closing with four straight birdies for a 5-under 67 and a one-shot victory over Hyo Joo Kim in a tournament that ended late Saturday.
Hwang, a Korea LPGA member playing on a sponsor exemption, extended the amazing LPGA streak of having different winners at all 25 tournaments this year.
Tied for the lead with Kim and Minami Katsu after her birdie on the par-4 17th, Hwang got a break when Katsu and Kim each bogeyed the hole in the group behind. On the par-5 18th, Hwang hit her second shot through the green into rough and chipped to a foot.
Nelly Korda closed with a 69 to finish three shots behind.
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