Lexi Wins in Dubai

Lexi Thompson closed with a 5-under 67 to win the Dubai Ladies Masters. The 72-hole Ladies European Tour event started Wednesday at Emirates Golf Club.

The 16-year-old from Coral Springs, Fla., finished at 15-under 273, four strokes ahead of Le-Anne Pace (69) of South Africa and five in front of Sweden's Sophie Gustafson (71) and Becky Morgan (70) of Wales.

With the title, Thompson became the youngest professional winner in LET history. South Korea's Amy Yang won the 2006 ANZ Ladies Masters as an amateur at the age of 16 years, 192 days. Thompson turns 17 on February 10, 2012.

Earlier in September, Thompson became the youngest-ever victor on the LPGA Tour when she won the Navistar LPGA Classic in Alabama by five strokes.

"It feels amazing," said Thompson, who earned $98,000 with the triumph in Dubai. "I'm just honored they invited me back and I'm just grateful to be here. I've been working on my game really hard and it has paid off."

Starting the final round five shots back of 54-hole leader Thompson, Michelle Wie got off to a rough start with two bogeys and a double on the front nine. She ended up with an even-par-72 and finished at 5-under 283 for a share of 12th place.

"It was pretty frustrating. I couldn't get my putts going," said the 22-year-old Wie. "I just needed to play better on the front nine all week. Nothing really went. Nothing went in. At least, I finished birdie, birdie. I gotta work on a lot of things for next season."

Wie congratulated Thompson via Twitter and told reporters, "I think she kind of has that mentality, just grip it and rip it. She just goes out there and just kind of has fun, which is really nice to see. She's a really talented player and I'm really impressed."

Thompson's father, Scott, served as his daughter's caddie this week and was pleased with her play. "She didn't panic and kept playing her game, not worrying about what else anyone was doing," he said.

"The first one wasn't a fluke," he added. "She has won again now. That is the great thing. The first one people may say she is lucky for the week. But she won again, so it kind of validates it."

For all the scores, visit http://www.ladieseuropeantour.info/tic/tmresult.cgi?tourn=TM92~season=2011~result=PF~.

Tweet