RANCHO MIRAGE, Calif. — Her heart racing and her hands shaking, Brittany Lincicome did whatever she could to keep it together on the final holes of the Kraft Nabisco Championship.

She breathed deep. She and her caddie sang country songs, mostly Sugarland and Kenny Chesney.

It worked, because she hit two brilliant shots on No. 18 to set up a 4-foot eagle putt that she rolled in to win her first major yesterday.

"I can't even describe it," Lincicome said. "It's surreal, really."

Meanwhile, Honolulu's Michelle Wie showed some improvement at Mission Hills Country Club, shooting a 71 for a 304 total, which was tied for third worst. The Punahou alum and current Stanford student shot 9-over 81s the previous two days.

Lincicome was never worse than three strokes behind in the final round, and stayed close as her good friend Kristy McPherson and Cristie Kerr traded the lead.

Trailing McPherson by one stroke, the 23-year-old Lincicome broke through with an amazing sequence of shots on the par-5, 485-yard finishing hole.

McPherson calls Lincicome "Bam-Bam" because of the length of her drives, and Lincicome lived up to that by booming a 275-yard drive down the middle of the fairway.

Lincicome hit a hybrid from 210 yards that cleared the water and landed on the upper part of the green, with the ball curling down just above the hole.

Kerr rolled in a birdie putt from the fringe to tie McPherson, but Lincicome made it a moot point when she made her putt to finish with a 3-under 69 and 279 total. She pumped her fist and hugged McPherson, who finished tied for second with Kerr, one shot back.

It was the third career victory for Lincicome, whose previous best finish in a major was a tie for second at this tournament in 2007.

PGA

CASEY TOPS HOLMES AFTER PLAYOFF IN HOUSTON

Paul Casey finally considers himself one of the world's top golfers, just in time for the Masters.

Casey won the Shell Houston Open yesterday at Humble, Texas for his first PGA Tour victory, beating J.B. Holmes with a bogey on the first playoff hole. The Englishman has nine international victories since 2001, but had never won in the United States. The win boosted Casey from No. 12 to No. 6 in the world rankings, a career high.

"It's time to start believing I can be a top 10 player in the world and maybe I can be in the top five," Casey said. "We'll see when we get there. Clearly, I just took a little while to sort of get used to things and feel comfortable. Now, I feel comfortable out here."

Casey, 31, bogeyed the 18th hole in regulation to complete a 72 and tie Holmes at 11-under 277. Holmes wrapped up a 69 almost three hours before Casey finished.

The players met on the tee of the 488-yard 18th hole, the most difficult of the tournament with an average score of 4.336.

Holmes hooked his tee shot into the pond that lines the hole, and couldn't recover.

ELSEWHERE

Nationwide Tour: Australia's Michael Sim won the Stonebrae Classic at Hayward, Calif., for his second career Nationwide Tour title, closing with a 7-under 64 for a six-stroke victory over countryman Cameron Percy and John Kimbell. Sim had an 18-under 266 total on the TPC San Francisco Bay at Stonebrae.

European Tour: Michael Hoey of Northern Ireland earned his first European Tour win by beating Gonzalo Fernandez-Castano of Spain on the third playoff hole at the Estoril Open in Cascais, Portugal. Both players had finished at 7-under 277 at the Oitavos Dunes course.