RANCHO MIRAGE — From the time the LPGA started fooling around with the yardage on the par-5 18th hole of the Dinah Shore Tournament Course, people have been waiting for an eagle to win the Kraft Nabisco Championship.

Sunday it finally happened.

Brittany Lincicome's four-foot eagle putt on the final hole, set up by a glorious second shot from 210 yards, made real the promise of the 18th hole by vaulting Lincicome to the Kraft Nabisco title.

“I can't even describe it. It's surreal, really,” Lincicome said after jumping past Cristie Kerr and Lincicome's best friend, Kristy McPherson, to win the LPGA's first major championship of the year at 9-under 279. “I had not really played great all day.”

Lincicome's final-round 3-under 69 earned her $300,000 for the victory. Kerr, who led by three shots early in the round, managed just a 71, while McPherson's up-and-down day produced a 72.

Lincicome took advantage of the traditional Sunday short tees of 485 yards on the par-5 18th, a tradition started earlier this decade to entice more players to go for the island green in two. Had the tees been back at the alternate 531 yards, Lincicome's eagle might never have happened.

Lincicome had hung around a shot or two behind Kerr and McPherson most of the back nine and was at 7-under, one shot behind McPherson and tied with Kerr, standing on the 72nd hole.

But Lincicome, nicknamed Bam Bam by McPherson for her ability to crush the ball off the tee, hit a big drive into the fairway on the par-5 18th, leaving her 210 yards to the pin and 190 yards to carry the water in front of the green. Lincicome then pulled off the shot of her career and one of the greatest shots in Kraft Nabisco history.

“The (19-degree) hybrid is in my hands and my hands are shaking and my heart is racing,” Lincicome said of the shot. “I'm trying to calm myself down by breathing or singing or whatever I can possibly do. And right when I hit it, it came off the clubface exactly where we wanted to hit it and took the slope like I wanted it to, and it came really close, thank God.”

Lincicome's ball hit the middle of the massive green, rolled to the back of the putting surface, then gently rolled down the steep slope back toward the pin as the packed gallery around the 18th hole roared.

Kerr, who lost the lead on the 15th hole when she hooked her drive out of bounds and onto Gerald Ford Drive on the way to a double-bogey 6, nearly matched Lincicome's 18th hole magic. Her wedge third shot rolled to within inches of the cup but eventually finished about 15 feet away. Kerr rolled in her birdie to reach 8-under, and McPherson's 30-foot birdie putt missed by inches to keep her at 8 under.

That left Lincicome, winless on tour since the 2007 season and fighting her confidence and injuries in the last year, to make the winning putt.

“If I had to make anything farther than that, well, my hands were shaking so bad. I was almost crying,” she said.

But the putt went in and Lincicome was back in the winner's circle, denying McPherson her first LPGA victory and denying Kerr her second major championship.

“I thought I played great all week. I struggled with hitting the driver straight at times, and it kind of came back to haunt me a little bit on 15,” Kerr said.

McPherson, who rallied from a poor start, including two bogeys in her first five holes, said she knew Lincicome had an advantage with the short tees on the 18th hole.

“I told my caddie, ‘Tees are up, we have got to make a birdie,' because Brittany is one of the few people that can hit a club in there that's going to stop where it did,” McPherson said.

Early in the round it was Kerr, an 11-time winner including the 2007 U.S. Women's Open, who seemed to take control of the tournament. As McPherson and Lincicome fought to make par, Kerr made birdies at the second and fourth hole to reach 9 under and lead by three shots over both trailers after five holes. But she played her next 10 holes even par, with a bogey on the 13th and a bogey on the 14th. McPherson earned a share of the lead with birdie at the seventh, ninth and 10th hole, but she played her final eight holes in 1-over.

That allowed Lincicome to stay close to the lead despite making just two birdies and one bogey in her first 17th holes.

“I was hanging in there, but could not really get any birdies to fall,” Lincicome said. “I made a lot of good saves throughout the round, then 17 I had a short birdie putt, all three of us had short birdie putts, and we all three missed them.”

Those three pars set up the drama of the 18th. Lincimcome's big drive made the difference, with Kerr in the rough and unable to go for the green in two and McPherson relegated to laying up because of her general shorter length off the tee.

Lincicome hit the hybrid and pulled off the shot, giving the Kraft the winning eagle everyone had waited for for years.

“That was pretty awesome. I don't even know how to describe the feeling I felt,” Lincicome said. “At one point (I thought) that I could get sick at any moment because I was shaking and so nervous.”