Jan. 27, 2009

RIO de JANEIRO, Brazil – Former South Carolina golfer Kristy McPherson had her best performance to date in a professional event, turning in a runner-up finish at the inaugural HSBC LPGA Brasil Cup at Itanhanga Golf Club. She was one of only two players to finish under par for the two-day, 36-hole tournament.

McPherson carded rounds of 71 and 72 to finish at one-under for the tournament, five shots back of tournament champion Catriona Matthew.

“I’m pleased,” McPherson told LPGA.com. “Catriona played great. I hit the ball great (Saturday) and not so great (Sunday). I was still rusty, but this was an opportunity to play against some top girls.”

The three-time All-American earned the best finish of her LPGA career after posting six top-10 finishes in 2008. Her previous best was a fourth-place tie at the P&G Beauty Northwest Arkansas Championship in July.

“It was good, it was cool,” she said. “This was a last-minute tournament for me. Didn’t think there was a chance I would get (a second-place finish), but I wanted to come down here and compete obviously. Some of the scores, there were offseason scores up there, but you had 15 of the best players….It was a good warm-up.”

McPherson currently stands 12th on the 2009 U.S. Solheim Cup points list with the full team to be announced in July. The top 10 on the points list will automatically qualify to play for the United States team, and team captain Beth Daniel will select the final two team members.

“Obviously, (making the Solheim Cup team) has been one of my goals forever,” McPherson said. “This year is double points and luckily we have some built in breaks, and I’ll play pretty much everything up until then to get myself points. It’s more of a mental grind. There are so many good young Americans. It’s a mental grind to keep yourself in it, stay in contention. Looking forward to a good season and hopefully I’ll keep it steady.”

McPherson and the rest of the LPGA have a few weeks off before returning to tournament action Feb. 12-14 at the SBS Open at Turtle Bay in Hawaii.

Information from LPGA.com was used in this release.