Miguel Tovar / AP

Michelle Wie celebrates after winning the Lorena Ochoa Invitational on Sunday.

The co-leader with Wie after three rounds, Kerr was level par on the front nine and reached 12 under with birdies on 10 and 11. After 12 holes, Wie, Creamer and Kerr were tied, but Kerr faded with bogeys on 15 and 16.

Shin, the rookie of the year, also slipped. Tournament host Ochoa shot 69 to finish six pack and Ai Miyazato, No. 2 on this year’s money list, finished 10 back after a 72.

Ochoa and Shin will battle next week for the player of the year award at the LPGA Tour Championship in Houston, the last event of the season. Ochoa has won the last three, but Shin leads the points race.

Nancy Lopez is the only player to win both the rookie and player awards in the same season, accomplishing the feat in 1978.

The LPGA, battered by economic problems and the forced resignation of its commissioner this summer, needs this as much as Wie.

“Literally, when Michelle Wie is atop the leaderboard it’s like night and day and that’s star power,” LPGA spokesman David Higdon said the day before Wie’s win. “That’s all it is. This is somebody people want to follow. You see it in her presence, the way she walks around. The way people talk to her.”

Wie played PGA Tour events when she was 14 — the biggest stage there is. She was criticized at the time for not focusing on women’s events. She turned pro in 2005 before even finishing high school.

She ignored the criticism and, at 16, she was poised to become the first woman to qualify for the men’s U.S. Open before her putter failed her.

Shortly after that she began to lose confidence and the biggest attraction in women’s golf went into a long, painful slump that was made worst by a wrist injury that ruined her 2007 season.

When she is on her game, it flies with soaring drives and better and better touch on the greens. Wie has finished second twice this season, and has two other third-place finishes on the LPGA Tour.

She has slowly worked her way back, earning her LPGA card for this season, gaining credibility with players and emerging as a star on this year’s Solheim Cup, going undefeated in four matches.

“It just taught me so much about handling that situation,” Wie said. “And actually, I wore my Solheim shoes today. So I felt pretty lucky.”