Creamer, 18, tops Wie, field for second LPGA title

Paula Creamer won her second LPGA title on Saturday at the Evian (France) Masters, beating fellow teenager Michelle Wie and Lorena Ochoa by eight shots.

The 18-year-old Creamer shot a 1-under 71 to finish at 15-under 273.

Wie, a 15-year-old amateur, shot a 68 and Ochoa a 69 to tie for second at the $2.5 million event.

The $375,000 prize boosted Creamer to second on the LPGA money list behind Annika Sorenstam, who shot a 75 and finished 12 strokes back.

Canada’s Lorie Kane (71) finished fourth in the select 78-woman field.

Wendy Ward of Edwall, Wash., finished tied for 32nd at 4-over 292.

PGA Tour

When word came that high winds and thunderstorms were on the way, Chris Smith hurried his game at the U.S. Bank Championship on Saturday. Not so Ben Crane.

Crane, a notorious slow player who showed some hustle when he ran between shots to make sure he got his round in before dark Friday night, was on the clock when rains interrupted play for 3 hours, 42 minutes hours at Brown Deer Park on Saturday.

After the restart, Crane finished with a 6-under 64 to take the 54-hole lead at 19-under-par 191, two shots better than Scott Verplank.

Smith (64) and Kenny Perry (65) were five shots off the lead, tied for third.

“Certainly, you never want to go on the clock. We fell behind today and we had to close the gap,” Crane said. “It’s one of those things that happened. I’m trying to get better at it.”

Dawdler or not, Crane is trying to become the first wire-to-wire winner in Milwaukee since Robert Gamez in 1991. Crane’s only other tour win came at the 2003 BellSouth Classic.

Champions Tour

Tom Watson matched the course record at Royal Aberdeen set only hours earlier, a 7-under 64 in mostly calm conditions that gave him a one-shot lead over Craig Stadler going into the final round of the Senior British Open in Aberdeen, Scotland.

Watson was at 3-under 210 and poised to win a British Open title on his fifth links course in Scotland. He won the British Open at Carnoustie, Muirfield and Royal Troon, and the British and Senior British Opens at Turnberry.

Junior amateur

Kevin Tway gave himself a nice 17th birthday present.

Tway won four of the first nine holes, then held off Bradley Johnson in the 36-hole final 5-and-3 to win the 58th U.S. Junior Amateur at Longmeadow (Mass.) Country Club.

Tway earned an automatic invitation to the U.S. Amateur next month. He also can defend his junior title next year because the event ends on July 22, one day before he turns 18.

•In-Kyung Kim won her first attempt at the U.S. Girls Junior Amateur, beating 2002 champion In-Bee Park 5-and-4 in Eagle, Idaho.

Kim, a 17-year-old Korean who came to the U.S. in March, led 2-up after the first two holes.

Deaf golfer plans to be back

Kevin Hall, the 22-year-old deaf golfer who made his PGA Tour debut at the U.S. Bank Championship, would love another sponsor exemption, but says he won’t be needing such passes in the future.

“I had dreamed since I teed it up that I was going to play with the big boys. After college, I continued to dream about it. I wanted it to happen and it did happen!” Hall wrote in an e-mail a day after carding a 68-74 and missing the cut at Brown Deer Park in Milwaukee.

A bout with meningitis stole Hall’s hearing when he was a youngster.