Ardina crumbles with final-round 75

MANILA, Philippines — Dottie Ardina’s dream title run in the LPGA Tour went up in smoke as a fumbling finish doomed her bid in the NW Arkansas Championship in Rogers, Arizona Sunday.

Only one shot behind the leader at the start of the day, Ardina faded in the final push and limped with a woeful four-over 75 that scratched her out of contention and into a share of 44th spot when the dust settled.

The Paris Olympian finished the 54-hole event at six-under 207 – 11 strokes off the 196s of Thai Jasmine Suwannapura (61) and history-making American Lucy Li (60) who disputed the championship in a playoff.

Suwannapura forced a playoff with an eagle on her 72nd hole. Then, after a stalemate on the first playoff hole, she calmly sank an eagle after Li had already come up short on her third shot.

Ardina settled for a take of $11,004 (over P600,000) for this disappointing finish on the heels of her sizzling start of 65 and 67.

She rued her disastrous three-bogey performance on the front nine and a mixed bag in the back featuring a bogey-double-bogey on the 12th and 13th that wasted her birdies on Nos. 10 and 14.

Ardina was the last Pinay bet standing in the tourney with Paris fourth-placer Bianca Pagdanganan and Fil-Japanese Yuka Saso missing the cut for the final round.