Course-best round makes Webb JTBC champion

Karrie Webb of Australia waves to the crowd Sunday as she arrives for ceremonies after winning the LPGA JTBC Founders Cup in Arizona. [AP/NEWSIS]

Karrie Webb flew up the leaderboard with a course record 9-under 63, then waited about 90 minutes to see if anyone could catch her in the JTBC Founders Cup.

No one could Sunday, giving the 39-year-old Australian her second LPGA Tour victory of the season and second in four years at Desert Ridge.

“I didn’t expect to be sitting here at the start of the day,’’ Webb said. “Even, actually, when I finished the day I didn’t expect to be sitting here. So I feel a little bit lucky, I guess, to be sitting here. But it doesn’t make it feel any less special.’’

For the second time in the event, Webb overcame a six-stroke deficit in the final round to win. In 2011, she closed with a 66 for a one-stroke victory.

The Hall of Famer had 10 birdies and a bogey, playing the back nine in 6-under 30. She birdied five of the last six holes, finishing with a 20-footer on the par-4 18th.

Webb also rallied to win the Women’s Australian Open last month and has 41 LPGA Tour victories to match founding LPGA Tour player Babe Zaharias for 10th place on the all-time title list.

Third-round leader Lydia Ko of New Zealand parred the final three holes to finish a stroke back, along with 2013 winner Stacy Lewis, Azahara Munoz, Amy Yang and Mirim Lee. The 16-year-old Ko finished with a 70. She had a three-stroke lead after birdieing Nos. 2-5, slipped back with bogeys on Nos. 6, 9 and 11 and pulled within one with a birdie on the par-5 15th.

Webb donated $50,000 of her $225,000 check, giving $25,000 to LPGA-USGA Girls Golf, an organization promoting the game among girls in the United States, and $25,000 to “The Founders,’’ a documentary film about the 13 women who started the LPGA Tour.

Webb did an interview for the film this week and learned that only about 10 percent of the necessary money had been raised for the movie. Webb is close friends with 90-year-old Louise Suggs, one of the tour’s founding players who was unable to attend the event this year.

AP