Ewing's five straight birdies leads to LPGA win in Cincinnati

CINCINNATI (AP) — Ally Ewing ran off five straight on the back nine Sunday and closed with a 7-under 65 to hold off Xiyu Lin and win the Kroger Queen City Championship in the LPGA Tour's return to Cincinnati.

Ewing now has three career wins, one in each of the last three years, though she came into this tournament without a top-10 finish all year.

The 29-year-old American played bogey-free on a rain-softened course and was pushed to the very end by Lin, who birdied two of her last three holes for a 65.

Maria Fassi of Mexico had a 71 and finished alone in third, her best LPGA finish.

Brooke Henderson of Smiths Falls, Ont., struggled Sunday. She opened with a bogey en route to a 1-over 73 and finished in a tie for 18th, 14 strokes back of Ewing.

Fellow Canadians Maude-Aimee Leblanc of Sherbrooke, Que., and Hamilton's Alena Sharp each had a 71 and ended the tournament in a nine-way tie for 24th.

London, Ont., native Maddie Szeryk came in 68th.

Lin started the final round two shots behind and made up ground quickly with a pair of birdies. Ewing had to make a 7-footer to match birdies with Lin on the par-5 12th and stay tied, and then the American kept going.

Ewing took the lead with an 8-foot birdie on the par-4 13th, made a 10-foot birdie on the next hole, hit wedge to 8 feet for birdie on the par-5 15th and then made her fifth in a row on the 16th after Lin also had birdied.

Lin made an 18-foot birdie on the 456-yard closing hole into a breeze — only the 20th birdie all week on No. 18 — to create a little extra pressure. Ewing had come up short of the green and elected to use putter through about 5 feet of wet fairway grass.

She gave it a good pop and the putt rolled out to 3 feet left of the hole. After Lin made her