Golf | Paula Creamer delights home gallery

HALF MOON BAY, Calif. — Paula Creamer could finally look to all those supporters who have seen her through several stages of her career and know she had made them proud while playing in her backyard.

Creamer calmly earned her biggest LPGA Tour title yet, holding off a large pack to win the Samsung World Championship on Sunday about 1 ½ hours from where she grew up in Pleasanton.

"This really does mean a lot. I put so much pressure on myself every time I come here," said Creamer, dressed in one of her custom pink outfits. "It's hard coming to your hometown. People watch you play all the time, but it's a different feeling when you're at home. You are constantly hearing, 'Go Pleasanton!' I want to win so badly, especially for everybody."

The 22-year-old Creamer beat Song-Hee Kim by a stroke, closing with a bogey-free, 3-under-par 69 for a 9-under 279 total. Creamer earned $250,000 for her fourth title of the year and eighth overall, going the final 37 holes without a bogey.

On No. 18, Creamer holed a 5-foot par putt that rolled on the right lip of the cup and in. She dropped her putter, and raised both arms with a huge smile across her face as Kim waited nearby for a possible playoff.

"Honestly, I didn't see it go in. I heard the people," Creamer said. "It was like the longest two seconds of my life having it roll into the hole."

Kim finished with a 68 for her fifth top-five finish of the year.

Top-ranked Lorena Ochoa, the 2006 and 2007 winner, shot a 69 to tie for third at 7 under with Juli Inkster (68), Suzann Pettersen (68) and Angela Stanford (70) in the elite 20-player field.

Other tournaments

• Long-hitting rookie Dustin Johnson won the Turning Stone Resort Championship for his first PGA Tour title, holing an 8-foot birdie putt on the final hole for a 3-under 69 and a one-stroke victory over Robert Allenby in Verona, N.Y.

Johnson finished at 9-under 279 to take the $1.08 million first-place prize in the $6 million event, the richest of the Fall Series, rising from 128th to 41st on the money list. The top 125 at the end of the year retain full Tour exemption for 2009. Allenby (70), seeking his fifth victory and first since 2001, had a chance to tie at No. 18, but the Australian's 12-foot putt for a birdie stopped inches short of the hole.

Ryan Moore (69) of Puyallup tied for 25th place at 286. He is 75th on the earnings list.

• Sweden's Robert Karlsson won the Alfred Dunhill Links Championship with a birdie on the first hole of a playoff with England's Ross Fisher and Germany's Martin Kaymer at St. Andrews in Scotland.

Karlsson earned $800,000 for his second victory of the year. Karlsson closed with a 7-under 65 to match Fisher (65) and Kaymer (68) at 10-under 278 for 72 holes.

• South Korea's Bae Sang-moon won the Korea Open, closing with a 2-under 69 for a one-stroke victory over England's Ian Poulter (70) in Seoul. Bae, 22, had an 11-under 273 total.

American Anthony Kim (71) and South Korea's Kim Wi-joong (72) tied for third at 9 under.