Kim Hyo-Joo in South Korea celebrates after winning the LPGA Ford Championship in a Play-Off (Mike Mulholland)
Kim Hyo-Joo in South Korea rolled in a six-foot Birdie Putt at the first play-off hole to win the LPGA Ford Championship on Sunday prior to the American Lilia Vu.
Kim had nine Birdies in her eight-under-par 64, the lowest round of the day in the whirlwind golf club in Chandler, Arizona, who brought her to a total of 226.
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Spend the night leader VU Katte a four-under-par 68, but when they returned to the Par-four 18th for the play-off Kim, her approach put six feet of the pin while VU left herself more than 15 feet.
The Putt of the American was short and Kim sank hers to claim her seventh LPGA victory, and her first since 2023.
“So it’s a while since I had a victories, so I was a bit stressed,” the 29-year-old Kim admitted.
“But I worked a lot during the winter, so now that I have a victory, I’m a bit light.”
“The feeling was great today,” said Kim, who only needed 24 puts. “I just thought one birdie at a time.”
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After the day of four shots, VU started, Kim had seven Birdies in the first 11 holes to grasp the solo lead on 21-under.
However, she found the water at 12 o’clock from the tee on the way to a bogey and missed a brief attempt by the Par Save.
Kim then left a Birdie Putt from the Green at the age of 16 and added another Birdie at the age of 17 to land in the clubhouse with a lead of one battle.
But VU stepped up and down for Birdie from a greenside bunker on the 17th, shoots from the sand to about a foot.
Vu, who had waited a long time for the green to erase at the age of 17, still had a tense delay on the 18th tee when Nanna Kooserstz Madsen searched for her ball in the desert bush.
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– No nerves –
Vu’s second shot understood through the green, but the two-time big winner and former world number one broke to about six feet and threw the par putt to force a play-off.
Kim had waited and looked while VU finished her round.
“I kept thinking that we could go on a play -off, so I kept stretching,” she said. “I thought I would be very nervous, but I really wasn’t.”
VU, who missed for three months last year with a back injury that still has problems, was satisfied with her week, despite the disappointment of the play -off.
“I am proud that I have kept my goal a bit, my weekly goal. The only goal is to be tailored to my body,” she said.
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“This is probably the most that I felt like I felt in the last year and a half.”
American Allisen Corpuz, the open champion of the US Women’s Open 2023, put itself in position with a Bogey-free Zeven-under-Par 65 but had to settle for third place at 267.
World number two Jeeno Thitikul of Thailand was in the hunt and shared the lead after her sixth Birdie of the day at 13.
But the birdies dried up and her six-year 66 left her alone in fourth place at 268.
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