An eagle on the par-five 18th hole saw Lincicome tie with Lewis at nine under, before a par on the third extra hole bettered her opponent's bogey.

The 29-year-old triumphed at the Mission Hills course in 2009, when the tournament was known as the Kraft Nabisco Championship, and having eagled the last hole on that occasion, she said it was "surreal" to repeat the feat. 

"I mean, to make eagle on any hole is pretty incredible, and then to do it on Sunday at a major, at this major where I did it in 2009," Lincicome said on www.lpga.com.

"It's really surreal.

"I feel like if you would have bet me all the money in the world to see how many times you could do it, if I went back to the fairway now I probably couldn't hit that shot again.

"So like I said earlier, today was my day.

"Somebody was looking out for me today."

Brittany Lincicome forced the play-off with an eagle on the par-five 18th hole
©Getty Images




Lewis had a chance to birdie the 72nd hole and seal victory in this year's first major championship, but her putt from 10-feet sneaked past and set up the play-off against her close friend.

Since winning the Walmart NW Arkansas Championship last June, she has finished runner-up on five occasions.

"I guess the more times you do it, the easier it gets," said Lewis.

"I don't know.

"That's all you can do.

"You can't sit and dwell on it.

"You just have to go out the next week and try to win.

"I'm doing a lot of really good things, so I just have to keep going forward."

Another American Morgan Pressel ended up one shot back, while world number one Lydia Ko of New Zealand was 12 shots off the pace in a tie for 51st place. 

Contact the writer of this story at [email protected]