DANVILLE — For the second year in a row, the Longs Drugs Challenge produced some of the best shot-making and drama on the LPGA Tour.

Last year it was two Hall of Famers, Karrie Webb and Annika Sorenstam, who waged an exciting and memorable-filled final-round battle in the canyons of the Blackhawk Country Club. Sorenstam made a great charge, firing a 65 on the Lakeside Course, but Webb held on to win by one stroke.

Sunday, it was the world’s No. 1 and 2 players, Lorena Ochoa and Suzanne Pettersen, who put on quite a show — much to the delight of large galleries — as they took on some tough pin placements, tricky greens and occasional winds that challenged them.

Pettersen’s eight foot birdie putt on the second hole of a sudden-death playoff beat Ochoa and gave the Norweigan golfer the win and the first-place check of $165,000. The two players were tied with 11-under-par 277 totals at the end of 72 holes of regulation play after Pettersen shot a 73 and Ochoa a 71 on a day when the 6,212-yard course flexed its muscles and didn’t give in.

It was back to the 18th hole, a par-4, 406-yard dogleg left with a big green that is fronted by a lake, for the playoff.

Both players made birdies, with Ochoa rolling in a 15-footer and Pettersen making hers from about a foot away — and ignoring a cell phone that was ringing near the green-side bleachers — after an outstanding approach shot.

They both found the fairway and green in regulation a second time. Ochoa missed her 20-foot birdie putt right and Pettersen was dead on with hers, punctuating the triumph with a fist pump as the crowd roared.

“It is just great being out here,” Pettersen said after clinching her third win of the season and her second via a playoff. “You play great players. You truly have to dig deep. You know you’ve got to play your heart out. It was a nice finish.”

The $1.1 million tournament ended with daylight disappearing fast in the 6 p.m. hour So there was no telling how much longer the playoff would have gone on, or if it would have required a Monday finish.

“I don’t know if we could have played much longer,” said Pettersen. “I had perfect yardages and you just try to pull off the shots. I probably hit my best putt, the last putt I had in the playoff. That was really nice.”

Pettersen didn’t blink for a second in the playoff, hitting 3-wood off the elevated tee each time, delivering picture-perfect wedge shots from 118 and 128 yards to the green, and putting herself in birdie position. The short iron shots on No. 18 may have the been the best Pettersen hit all week, as much of the course requires placement of the ball rather than prodigious length.

“Lorena is a great golf player, but she has a great personality,” said Pettersen, who held a one-shot lead after third-round play. “You just have to like her. We are all competitive. But at the same time, we support each other and want the best out of everybody.”

Ochoa, who is pursuing the Rolex Player of the Year award and the Vare Trophy for lowest scoring average, won $101,967 and became the first LPGA player to earn $3 million in a single season. Like Pettersen, she had an up and down round, but made a birdie on the par-4, 333-yard 17th hole to give herself an opportunity.

“I was just glad to be able to be in a playoff, to have a chance to win the tournament,” said Ochoa, a six-time winner in 2007 who was trying to win for the fourth time in her last five events. “I struggled a lot. I am proud of myself the way I came back and made a couple birdies. And even on the 18th in the final round, I was close to making that birdie.

“Suzann played really good, especially with those (rounds on) Friday and Saturday. Unfortunately, it wasn’t my tournament. Of course, I am disappointed. I am just going to let it go and be ready for next week.”

Pettersen’s round included bogeys on Nos. 1 and 3, a birdie on No. 5, bogeys on Nos. 9, 10 and 11, and birdies on the 12th, 15th and 16th holes. Pettersen, who began the day at 12-under, hit 8 of 13 fairways, 14 of 18 greens and needed 32 putts.

Ochoa was hurt by a double-bogey 5 on the par-3, 155-yard 12th hole. She four-putted from 35 feet in what she later said was the hole — which she played in 4-over-par for the week — that cost her the tournament There was a three-way tie for the lead at 9-under at one point between Ochoa, Pettersen and Juli Inkster (70), who finished alone in third.

Natalie Gulbis shot a 66, the low round for the day, and was tied with Lori Kane (77) for fourth place with 282 totals. Both players earned $51,640. Kane started the day one shot out of first place.

“I just didn’t have it today,” said Kane, winless since the 2001 season. “But it will only make me more stronger.”

Nicole Castrale (69) was sixth, Webb (72) was seventh, and Amy Hung (68), In-Kyung Kim (70) and Maria Hjorth (72) tied for eighth

Ochoa, who also had a bogey and four birdies, said her approach to the playoff was to be aggressive. She hit 7-iron both times from the fairway.

“You don’t have too many holes,” she said. “You have to just try to make a birdie. I played the hole very deep than Suzann. I had a longer second shot. That was good, so I could hit first and put some pressure on her.

“She put the ball a lot closer than me. She won the playoff the way it should be, being aggressive and making a birdie.”

Ochoa came right back after the double bogey, sinking a slightly downhill touch-putt for birdie on the par-4, 315-yard 13th hole. She also birdied the 17th, hitting a sand wedge from 55 yards to 10 feet and making the putt.

Inkster, a Hall of Famer from nearby Los Altos playing in front of family and friends, was disappointed in her finish.

“A little chip here, a little putt there — it is keeping me from winning,” said Inkster. “I’ve just got to work on that so I am a little sharper.”