Suzy Green-Roebuck doesn't play the amount of golf she used to during her seven years on the LPGA tour. Now married and a mother to three and living in Ann Arbor, her golf experience is down to a pair of tournaments every summer, nurturing her two boys' fledgling interest in golf at Barton Hills Country Club, and teaching at Indian Trail Golf Center.

This week she did everything but win the Michigan PGA Women's Open at Crystal Mountain, losing by a stroke to current tour player Lisa Strom on Wednesday, the final day of the three-day tournament. University of Michigan graduate and two-time LPGA winner Elaine Crosby tied for third one shot back of Green-Roebuck.

Green-Roebuck carried a three-stroke lead into the final round thanks to a pair of 2-under-par 70s Monday and Tuesday, carding seven birdies and three bogeys. Wednesday, however, the effects of a bad back took its toll as she bogeyed four holes, not getting her first birdie until the final hole and shooting a three-over 75. She finished one-under 215 for the tournament.

"I'm really proud of the way I played," Gree-Roebuck said. "I wasn't hitting a lot of greens, but I chipped better than I ever have. When I missed, I missed well enough that I was able to save myself."

Strom had to earn the win. After Strom missed the green on the par four 16th, Green-Roebuck had a chance to get a stroke back. She picked the right club but pulled her shot just a few yards left into some long rough. It took nearly five minutes to find her ball.

"That was really my only lie like that the whole tournament," she said. "I think if I could have hit the green there, that was my chance."

The two both bogeyed the hole, and on 17 Green-Roebuck just missed a birdie putt. She birdied 18, forcing Strom to make a nine-foot putt to avoid a playoff, which she did to wrap up her second title at the event (2007).

"It's tough to grind for 18 holes," Green-Roebuck said. "Golf isn't always pretty. I got the ball in the whole, just not in time all the time."

The time away hasn't dampened Green-Roebuck's competitive spirit.

"She's a great competitor. Like a lot of tour players, she is genuinely nice to your face but she really wants to beat you on the course," former tour pro Sue Ertl said of Green-Roebuck. "It's as if she never left the tour."

Phil Lozen covers sports for AnnArbor.com. He can be reached at phillozen@annarbor.com