KAPOLEI — Paula Creamer finished in a pink blur of clutch birdies to rip the Fields Open in Hawai'i out of Jeong Jang's hands yesterday.

Creamer birdied four of the last five, including the final three, to win her fifth LPGA event. The $190,000 first prize gives her more than $4.2 million in career earnings and moves her into the Top 30 — at age 21. Her total of 16-under-par 200 was a tournament record by two shots.

That would be her last two birdies, which caught and, after four-plus frustrating hours without a payoff, finally passed the tenacious Jang. The 2005 Women's British Open champion didn't blink all day, but all that ultimately meant was that Jang saw Creamer's pink ball, belt, putter grip, armband, shoes, shirt and cap and caddie's cap pass by in vivid detail at the end.

When Jang hit a wonderful gap wedge to a foot for easy birdie on the 15th, she had a two-shot advantage. Creamer went into desperation mode, and finally started to whack putts to the back of the hole.

"She's a good putter, and when she has that feeling she's going to make them all," Jang said. "I never thought this tournament was mine because she kept trying and trying and she missed by like this much (inches), all the putting on the back nine. I know she's going to be good and I just needed to make my birdies. But I didn't do it, so it wasn't mine this time."

PUTTS FALL JUST IN TIME

Creamer had 26 putts each of the first two days here. Yesterday she had 26 after 15 holes, including a four-footer she missed on the fifth that would have given her the lead. Jang did not give her another chance, so Creamer went out and won this one on the final three holes.

She dropped a 12-footer on the 16th, then drained a 20-footer to catch Jang on the next hole — for the first time since No. 6.

"I kept trying to tell myself, 'Stay patient, the putts are going to fall. They're going to fall,' " recalled Creamer, who closed with a bogey-free 6-under 66. "On 15, when she makes birdie and I make par and you're two shots back, I'm thinking, putts have got to fall pretty soon. Only have three left."

Creamer rode the momentum into the final hole, which played the toughest all three days at Ko Olina Golf Club. From 164 yards out, she launched a 6-iron that landed on the upper tier and stopped six feet from the pin.

"As soon as she hit it everybody was clapping," Jang recalled. "I said, 'How far? She make it?' My caddie said, 'No, she just passed the hole a little bit.' I said, 'OK.' "

But it wouldn't be OK for Jang. At that point there was no way Creamer was going to miss. When Jang "misread" her last-chance 35-foot birdie putt, Creamer buried the winner right in the heart of the hole.

"I was nervous but I felt confident," Creamer said. "That's why you practice, why I do my drills. To feel that, there's nothing like that."

Creamer has now won twice in Hawai'i, capturing the SBS Open at Turtle Bay last year. Her final round at Turtle Bay a week ago might have provided the jump start she needed this week, particularly after coming down with the flu nine days ago. Creamer surged onto the leaderboard from far back last Saturday, hitting every green and tying for 12th.

"Ball-striking-wise, that was a very good thing for me," Creamer said. "I've been working on a lot of things with my golf and that was kind of a free day to go out for under-the-gun practice and take what you did on the range to the course. Especially when I got sick, and wasn't able to play Sunday and Monday, I took that momentum into this tournament."

Ko Olina's conditions were so perfect yesterday it was almost impossible to go backwards, although Michelle Wie's "rusty" and erratic golf game could not hold up a third straight day. After making her first cut since July, the Punahou graduate closed with 78 and shared last.

"It's my first tournament back," said Wie, who returns to freshman classes at Stanford tomorrow. "I'm going to have good shots, I'm going to have bad shots. There's a lot of room for improvement, but I'm back at square one and just have to work from here."

Ayaka Kaneko, an 18-year-old amateur and Sacred Hearts senior, finished in a tie for 45th, with defending champion Stacy Prammanasudh, at 71-213. It was still good enough to get her an interview on The Golf Channel.

EYE ON THE BIRDIES

Meanwhile, the last few groups were exchanging birdie fire at a rapid rate before galleries that, for the first time, were as large as Wie's.

Creamer came at Jang from the first tee, sinking birdie putts from 20 and 35 feet on two of the first three holes to tie for first. But Jang was up to Creamer's challenge.

The world's fifth- (Creamer) and 12th-ranked (Jang) women's golfers matched great and gutsy shots. Annika Sorenstam — ranked second — also made the charge everyone knew would come when she pulled within two at the turn.

Her deficit doubled when she splashed her tee shot on the 10th hole, resulting in double bogey. Sorenstam, who won last week's SBS Open, bounced back with a vengeance, making four birdies in her next five holes, but it was too late.

It was also too late for Swedish rookie Louise Friberg, who birdied seven of her first 11 holes and parred the final seven to shoot 65, the day's low round with Johanna Head. Friberg finished in a tie for seventh, behind England's Karen Stupples and 22-year-old Minea Blomqvist, from Finland.

Australian Lindsey Wright birdied the 16th and 17th to bolt past Sorenstam with a bogey-free 67 and get a career-best third-place finish. Wright was ninth here in 2006, 21st last year and 16th last week at Turtle Bay.

Jang was left to lament the par-5's that got away. She birdied all but one the first two days, but only one when it counted yesterday. That was her only regret on a day when she felt she played well enough to win.

"I really want to win," said Jang, who now has 39 Top-10's the last three-plus years, but only two wins. "Actually, everybody wants to. ... I really want to because I've been waiting a long time and I have great feeling and I know I can do it. But someone's better than me, so maybe next time I will try better and harder."

'PINKY,' THE BALL, EASY ON EYES FOR CREAMER

Jeong Jang can't comprehend Paula Creamer's tradition of playing a pink ball on the final day. Jang couldn't see Creamer's decisive shot on the 18th hole yesterday. Actually, she admitted she couldn't find Creamer's pink ball all day long.

"I don't know how she hits that ball because, you know, hard to see," Jang said, grinning. "When you hit the green and you can see the white ball, and hard to see the pink. Then, when you can't even find it in the air, I don't know how she hit it, but she looks good with that."

Creamer, of course, loves it. When she told Bridgestone/Precept she was going to play a pink ball the company offered her several light shades.

"I said, 'If we're going with a pink ball, we're going pink,' " Creamer recalled. "This thing, it's awesome. I like it. No one is out there with a pink ball. But I practice with it at home and I can see it. Colin (her caddie) will always ask, 'Do you see it? Oh yeah, I see it.' We always say, 'You see Pinky?' And if Pinky is OK, then we're fine."

KO OLINA PLAYS A LITTLE EASIER IN FINAL ROUND

Ko Olina played almost a shot under-par yesterday (71.868), after scoring of 72.000 the first day and 72.059 the second.

The overall average was 71.868, or about half a shot easier than last year (72.277).

The toughest hole all three days was the 18th, and Michelle Wie, Momoko Ueda and Hiromi Mogi can attest to that. All three splashed to triple-bogey 7 there yesterday. It lifted Mogi to the highest score of the day (79) and Wie had the second-highest (78).

Ueda was at 9-under for the tournament after 15 holes yesterday, but bogeyed the 16th before her problems at 18 and fell to 25th place.

NOTES

Kapalua's Morgan Pressel rallied for a final-round 66 to finish in a tie for 15th. Turtle Bay's Dorothy Delasin got a share of 26th at 73-211.

Paula Creamer and Annika Sorenstam made a financial killing in Hawai'i the last 10 days. Creamer collected $212,384 at Turtle Bay and Ko Olina. Sorenstam is heading to the next tournament in Singapore with $232,112 in Hawai'i money.

Ayaka Kaneko and Michelle Wie each hit 28 greens in regulation this week, or just a little more than half. Kaneko hit five more fairways (25-20) and had three fewer putts (78-81). But Wie led the driving distance statistics at 273 yards on the holes that were measured, to Kaneko's 265.

Reach Ann Miller at amiller@honoluluadvertiser.com.