Kim rallies to beat Vu in LPGA playoff in Arizona

CHANDLER, Ariz. — Hyo Joo Kim rallied from a four-shot deficit Sunday with an 8-under 64 to pressure a playoff, defeating Lilia Vu on the primary further gap with a 6-foot birdie putt within the Ford Championship.

Kim gained for the seventh time on the LPGA and emerged from a protracted and wild day within the desert at Whirlwind Golf Membership with 10 birdies within the 19 holes she performed.

Vu hit a splendid bunker shot on the par-5 seventeenth to arrange a brief birdie to tie Kim. Her method on the 18th bounded throughout the agency inexperienced, she chipped to 7 toes and holed the par putt for a 68 to ship the event into further holes.

Vu missed a birdie putt from about 15 toes, organising Kim for the win.

“The sensation was nice at present and I simply thought one gap at a time, one birdie at a time,” Kim stated via her interpreter.

Vu, who began with a two-shot lead over Charley Hull, rolled in a brief birdie putt on the par-5 twelfth to create a four-way tie for the lead with Kim, Allisen Corpuz and Jeeno Thitikul.

Corpuz made two birdies on the again 9, each instances giving her a share of the lead. She closed with a 65. and completed third. Thitikul charged into rivalry with three straight birdies, solely to accept six closing pars for a 66 to complete fourth.

“Had it occurring the entrance 9. Could not fairly get a couple of to drop on the again, however general nonetheless actually happy with the week,” Corpuz stated.

Kim, a 29-year-old South Korean who has 23 titles throughout 4 the primary excursions in girls’s golf, seized management with a 31 on the entrance 9, adopted by two birdies to begin the again 9. After which she let everybody again into the event by hitting within the water proper of the twelfth inexperienced and making bogey on a par 5.

However she bounced again with an 18-foot birdie putt on the sixteenth to interrupt out of the four-way tie, and he or she two-putted for birdie on the par-5 seventeenth to regain the lead.

She was at her greatest within the playoff, particularly with the mix of wind and bouncy greens making it troublesome to determine the place to land pictures on the inexperienced. Kim’s method within the playoff rolled out completely.

They completed at 22-under 266. Kim gained $337,500, sending her over $10 million for her profession on the LPGA Tour.

Hull could not get a putt to drop within the remaining group and needed to accept a 71, ending 5 pictures behind. Defending champion Nelly Korda fell out of the combo on Saturday and shot a 69 on Sunday to complete in a tie for twenty second.

The LPGA subsequent week strikes 300 miles north for the T-Cell Match Play at Shadow Creek north of Las Vegas.