BETHESDA: Chun In-gee captured her 3rd main name on Sunday, successful the Girls’s PGA Championship to say her first main since 2016 and snap a victory drought of just about 4 years. The 27-year-old South Korean fired a three-over par 75 in windy prerequisites at Congressional Nation Membership in Bethesda, Maryland, to complete 72 holes on five-under 283. That used to be just right sufficient for a one-stroke conquer American Lexi Thompson and Australian Minjee Lee to take the $1.35 million peak prize from a document $9 million handbag.
“It simply manner so much as a result of I didn’t have any wins for nearly 3 1/2 years,” Chun stated, her voice cracking with emotion. “My unswerving lovers in Korea, they by no means gave up on me regardless of how I did.” Chun, ranked thirty third, had no longer gained since October 2018 on the Hana Financial institution Championship in South Korea, a 76-event international winless streak. However after squandering what were a three-stroke lead when the day started, Chun added a 3rd profession main trophy after the 2015 US Girls’s Open and 2016 Evian Championship.
Chun ruled the primary two rounds and led by means of as many as seven strokes ahead of suffering to 75s in every of the overall two rounds whilst sixth-ranked Thompson charged. Thompson, alternatively, may no longer finish an eight-year main win drought since her 2014 Kraft Nabisco Championship trophy at age 19 or a three-year total victory drought. The American settled for her eleventh top-five main end since taking pictures her first main victory and her fourth main runner-up effort.
Thompson, tied for the lead with Chun on the par-4 seventeenth, made a three-putt bogey to offer the Asian celebrity a one-stroke lead as they reached the 72nd hollow of the week. On the par-4 18th, Chun went into again greenside tough together with her way whilst Thompson had a protracted birdie putt. Chun rolled her putt over a ridge and 5 ft previous the cup whilst Thompson two-putted for par, leaving Chun one closing putt for the name. Chun evenly rolled within the tension-packed putt and pumped her proper fist because the ball fell into the cup and gave her a 3rd profession main name.
Chun stumbles early
Chun started the overall spherical on 8-under with a three-stroke lead over Thompson, however Chun made bogeys on 3 of the primary six holes whilst Thompson birdied the primary and 3rd to take hold of the lead. Thompson stumbled with a bogey on the par-3 7th however Chun made a bogey on the par-5 9th and Thompson once more loved a two-stroke edge. Thompson and Chun matched birdies on the par-5 eleventh and bogeys on the par-4 twelfth, Chun lipping out her five-foot par putt at 12 to stay two again. However Thompson overlooked a tap-in par putt on the par-4 14th and fell to 5-under with Chun one adrift.
On the par-4 fifteenth, alternatively, Thompson sank a 12-foot birdie putt and restored a two-stroke lead at 6-under with 3 holes ultimate. Chun replied with an eight-foot birdie putt on the par-5 sixteenth whilst Thompson made a bogey, leaving them deadlocked for the result in arrange the final drama. Thailand’s Atthaya Thitikul used to be fourth on 285 whilst a fifth-place pack on 287 integrated Japan’s Nasa Hataoka, Australian Hannah Inexperienced and South Koreans Kim Hyo-joo, Kim Sei-young and Choi Hye-jin. – AFP