Karrie Webb fired a sensational course record eight under 63 to win the Founders Cup and take her career wins on the LPGA Tour to 41.

The 39-year-old Queenslander carded 10 birdies en route to claiming victory by a stroke from a group of five players including overnight leader Lydia Ko (70), American Stacy Lewis (66), Spain's Azahara Munoz (67) and South Korean pair Amy Yang (67) and Mirim Lee (69).

Webb was seemingly out of contention heading into the closing round but she came from six shots back and overtook 19 players in front of her at the start of the day in Phoenix, Arizona, to set the winning mark at 19 under 269. She then had to endure a 90-minute wait to see if she would be champion.

Karrie Webb poses with the JTBC LPGA Founders Cup trophy, which she won in 2011. She now heads into the year's first major as one of the favourites. PHOTO: Getty Images

Webb told reporters she stood on the 10th tee at 13-under and asked herself what it would take to win, and decided she would need to get to 20 under to be any chance. As it turned out, 19 under was enough.

She made six birdies in her last nine holes including four straight from the 13th and then made another from 20 feet on the 72nd hole.

But after waiting for her pursuers to finish, and with one by one dropping away, her win was confirmed.

“I definitely putted probably the best I have all week,” Webb said after receiving the trophy. “I don't feel like I putted all that great the first few rounds.

“I worked on a few things last night, so I really got the ball rolling on the back nine.”

Webb said she didn’t count herself out of contention heading into Sunday.

“You think you have an outside chance, but there's so many, you know, 18 people ahead of me, so anyone can go out and shoot what I shot today,” she said.

“For me, this is the last day that Ian Triggs (her coach) was here, and you know, I just wanted to make some progression going into next week and then obviously into the Kraft. So that's what I was mainly thinking about today, get the putter back on track because that's been pretty good this year and was a bit of a surprise that it wasn't so good the first three days this week.”

Third-round leader Ko parred the final three holes to finish a stroke back. She had a chance to tie Webb with a 25-foot birdie attempt but she rolled it short and right of the cup.

This was Webb's 41st LPGA Tour victory, her 53rd international win as a professional and her second in the Founders Cup, which she also won in 2011.

Her win also signals she is a big chance heading into the year's first major championship, the Kraft Nabisco, to be played from April 3 to 6, where she will be looking to claim her eighth major title and her first since the 2006 Kraft Nabisco Championship.

LEADERBOARD

1. Karrie Webb (Qld)   66-71-69-63—269    US$225,000

T2. Stacy Lewis (US)   66-71-67-66—270    85,895

T2. Azahara Munoz (Esp)   68-71-64-67—270     85,895

T2. Lydia Ko (NZ)   67-66-67-70—270     85,895

T2. Amy Yang (S.Kor)   67-69-67-67—270     85,895

ALSO:

T34. Lindsey Wright (NSW)   69-71-69-69—278     US$9,873

T68. Sarah Jane Smith (Qld)   69-69-75-72—285     3,049

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