Jiyai Shin wins record LPGA playoff at Kingsmill

Jiyai Shin ended the longest playoff between two players in LPGA Tour history, making a two-putt par on the ninth hole of a playoff Monday to beat Paula Creamer and win the Kingsmill Championship at Williamsburg, Va.

Shin and Creamer played the 18th hole eight times Sunday in an attempt to break the tie before darkness forced a suspension of play. The next morning, they drew about 1,000 fans and needed just one more hole, the par-four 16th, and 20 minutes to settle it.

Creamer hit her 30-foot, double-break, downhill first putt about five feet past the hole. She then missed the left-to-right bending comebacker, the ball hitting the right edge and spinning out. Shin’s first putt, also breaking left to right, stopped three feet from the cup.

“We were so hungry for the win,” Shin said.

Shin, a 24-year-old South Korean who was ranked No. 1 for 16 weeks in 2010, had not won in two years. She earned $195,000 for the victory.

The final hole marked a dramatic conclusion to the tour’s return to Kingsmill after a two-year absence, and was not unlike the final hole of regulation, when Creamer missed a five-foot putt for par that would have won the tournament, leaving them tied at 16 under.

Creamer finished with a par 71 Sunday and Shin shot a 69.

Both then parred the par-four 18th hole eight times, breaking the mark of seven set in Cristie Kerr’s victory over Seol-An Jeon in the 2004 LPGA Takefuji Classic. Jo Ann Prentice won the longest playoff overall, taking the 1972 Corpus Christi Civitan Open on the 10th hole.

Shin had a good chance to win on the first extra hole Sunday but left a six-foot birdie putt short. Both players came close to winning on the second playoff hole, got up and down for pars from bunkers on the third, and two-putted for par on the fourth, fifth and sixth.

Creamer sank a five-foot putt to save par and extend the playoff on the seventh, and both two-putted on the eighth.

COLLEGE FOOTBALL

Alabama loses Fowler to injury

Alabama running back Jalston Fowler is expected to miss the rest of the season because of a knee injury.

Coach Nick Saban said Fowler will undergo surgery on his left knee “and is most likely going to be out for the season.” He didn’t elaborate on the nature of the injury.

“Jalston’s been a great player in the program, a great special-teams guy, a great backup player for us and a really good attitude guy,” Saban said. “A really good competitor. I know he feels badly and we feel badly too, for him, that he can’t be a part and continue to contribute to our team this year.”

Fowler, who was injured in the Western Kentucky game Saturday, is second on the top-ranked Crimson Tide with 85 yards in 11 carries.

The 245-pounder also serves as a lead blocker in the I-formation and is on punt and kick return teams.

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It’s still too early to know the long-term effects of Tulane safety Devon Walker’s spinal injury, the school’s athletic director said.

Walker was in stable condition Monday, recovering in an intensive-care unit after Sunday’s three-hour surgery to stabilize his spine at St. Francis Hospital in Tulsa, Okla. He was injured in a head-to-head collision with a teammate during Saturday’s game at Tulsa.

“It is too early in Devon’s recovery process to draw any conclusions about his progress,” said Tulane Athletic Director Rick Dickson. “When the neurosurgeons here at St. Francis have more definitive information, they will co-consult” with the team’s doctor. Until then, Dickson said, there will be “constant monitoring, care and attention” for Walker.

Dickson, speaking at a Monday news conference at the hospital, described Walker as “alert and responsive” following his surgery, but said he did not know when Walker could be released.

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Indiana quarterback Tre Roberson could return to campus as early as Wednesday following surgery on his broken lower left leg.

Coach Kevin Wilson doesn’t expect Roberson to be back on a football field any time soon.

Wilson told radio listeners Monday night that the sophomore had a “clean” break in his lower leg, that doctors inserted a titanium rod into it Sunday and that it would probably take Roberson five to six months to make a full recovery.

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Purdue quarterback Robert Marve was still awaiting MRI results on his injured left knee — two days after being injured against Notre Dame.

A team spokesman said Monday there was no update on Marve. The injury drew immediate concern at Purdue because the sixth-year senior has already torn the anterior cruciate ligament twice in the same knee.

Marve’s status for Saturday’s home game against Eastern Michigan will remain unclear until those results come back.

BASKETBALL

Gillispie is on sick leave indefinitely

A Texas Tech athletics official said basketball Coach Billy Gillispie is on indefinite sick leave.

Spokesman Blayne Beal said Monday that Gillispie is taking sick days. It was not clear how long Gillispie will be out.

The school announced Aug. 31 that it had opened an investigation into alleged mistreatment of players by Gillispie. Earlier that day and hours before he was to meet with Athletic Director Kirby Hocutt, Gillispie called 911 and was taken to a Lubbock hospital.

He told the Lubbock Avalanche-Journal he thought he was having a heart attack or a stroke.

He spent six days at University Medical Center before being released Thursday.