Grant breezes to 2nd LPGA title at The Annika

BELLEAIR, Fla. — Linn Grant of Sweden had a lot management of her sport that she performed 52 holes consecutive holes with no bogey, a streak that ended on the ultimate gap Sunday when it now not mattered. She closed with a 5-under 65 for a three-shot victory over Jennifer Kupcho in The Annika.

It was Grant’s second LPGA title, and the second time she acquired a trophy from Swedish nice and match host Annika Sorenstam. Grant received the Scandinavian Combined in Sweden when Sorenstam and Henrik Stenson have been co-hosts.

“You made this course look straightforward. It isn’t straightforward,” Sorenstam advised her on the 18th inexperienced.

It will need to have felt that technique to Grant, who was by no means beneath a lot stress. She completed at 19-under 261 and had an opportunity to set the match report till a bogey on the ultimate gap, her first one since her opening gap Friday.

“There are weeks the place everybody looks like their sport is basically good and there might probably be a win. It is simply very nice to love see it go all the way in which and to essentially stroll off 18 and be capable of pat your self on the shoulder and really feel like I truly did it this week,” Grant stated.

She is the primary Swedish winner of the match that started in 2020, much more significant to Grant as a result of she remembers going to clinics Sorenstam held in Sweden when she was a woman and remembers watching Sorenstam hit wedges to somebody catching them with a baseball glove.

“I began doing that with my dad, so thanks for that,” Grant advised Sorenstam.

Kupcho birdied the primary gap to tie for the lead, however solely briefly. Grant birdied the subsequent gap and by no means trailed once more. The Swede needed to make a 15-foot birdie putt to remain one forward by 5 holes, after which she seized management on the par-3 ninth.

Kupcho made her second bogey of the entrance 9, and Grant rolled in a 10-foot birdie putt to increase the result in three pictures. Nobody bought any nearer the remainder of the way in which.

Kupcho additionally closed with a 65.

“I am glad she was taking part in properly as a result of I feel that actually pushed me to play higher,” Grant stated. “And general, I simply had the considered whoever wins goes to have a extremely good job.”

Gaby Lopez of Mexico birdied 4 of her final six holes for a 65 to complete third.

Brooke Matthews additionally got here away a winner in two respects. She made a hole-in-one with a 9-iron from 140 yards on the twelfth gap to win a two-year lease on a Lamborghini Huracán. Two holes later, Matthews chipped in for eagle and all these nice pictures mattered.

It added to a 65 — a card that included scores of 1, 2, 3, 4, 5 and 6 — to tie for ninth, giving her sufficient factors to maneuver into the highest 60 of the Race to the CME Globe. That qualifies her for subsequent week’s season-ending CME Group Tour Championship, the place the winner will get $4 million.

“It was wild,” Matthews stated. “All week I used to be like, ‘I wish to win the Lamborghini.’ … Simply noticed it bounce. I nonetheless cannot imagine it. I blacked out. I can not wait to look at it on movie as a result of I nonetheless cannot actually keep in mind it.”

Nataliya Guseva had her personal large second. She holed out with a niche wedge from 109 yards on the ultimate gap for birdie — she needed to lay up out of a fairway bunker — giving her a 68 that moved the Russian into the highest 60.

Lucy Li additionally advances to subsequent week down the coast in Naples. Her birdie on the ultimate gap gave her a 66 and moved her up 13 spots to No. 58.

Grant was working out of time to increase her streak of successful annually someplace on the planet courting to 2020, when she was nonetheless an novice and received twice on the Nordic Golf League. She has received titles on the LPGA, Women European Tour, LET Entry Sequence, Women Sunshine Tour, Nordic Golf League and even the European Tour, which co-sanctioned the Scandinavian Combined.

“My dad is a person of fine phrases,” she stated. “When he checked out another person’s profession he at all times stated, ‘If in case you have a win yearly that is fairly stable.’ I suppose that is what it’s.”

Defending champion Nelly Korda, a three-time winner at Pelican Golf Membership, began six pictures behind and could not hold tempo with Grand. She closed with a 69 and tied for fifteenth.