PHOENIX (AP) – Anna Nordqvist caught up with some college friends – and left everyone else behind Sunday on another hot afternoon at the Bank of Hope Founders Cup.
The 29-year-old former Arizona State player shot a 4-under 68 to hold off fellow major champions Ariya Jutanugarn, Stacy Lewis and In Gee Chun by two strokes in record 96-degree heat at Desert Ridge.
“I have so many friends and family here. They feel like family, my U.S. family,” the 6-foot Swede said. “Couldn’t think of a better place to be. I’m just so happy to be back. I wasn’t even going to play a couple weeks ago and just ended up adding it last minute. Maybe it was meant to be.”
Nordqvist won her seventh LPGA Tour title and first since successfully defending at the ShopRite LPGA Classic last June. In the U.S. Women’s Open in July, she lost a three-hole playoff to Brittany Lang after being penalized two strokes for touching the sand with her club in a fairway bunker on the second extra hole.
She ended up back in the Valley of Sun after dropping the Women’s Australian Open from her schedule because it didn’t count in the European Solheim Cup standings.