Chandler, Arizona – Hyoju Kim forced the playoffs at 8 under 64 from a four-shot deficit and defeated Liliav in the first extra hole with a 6-foot birdie putt in the Ford Championship.
Kim came out from a long wild day in the desert in the LPGA for the seventh time and was awake.
Vu hit a great bunker shot on the par 5 17th and set up a short birdie to tie Kim together. Her approach on the 18th day went through the boundary, overcoming the green green, chipping at 7 feet, drilling a putt and sending the tournament into the extra hole at 68.
Vu missed a birdie putt from about 15 feet and set up Kim for the victory.
“Today was great, so I thought of one hole at a time, one birdie at a time,” Kim said through an interpreter.
Starting with a two-shot lead from Charlie Hal, Vu rolled on May 5th with a short birdie putt, creating a four-way tie for the lead with Kim, Allisen Corpuz and Jeeno Thitikul.
Corpuz made two birdies in the back nine. Both gave her a share of the lead. She closed at 65. Thitikul was charged with a dispute with three straight birdies, but settled on a closed par of 66, finishing fourth in 66.
“We were doing that on the Front Nine. We couldn’t drop a few people on our backs, but overall we’re still really proud of this week,” Corpos said.
Kim, a 29-year-old Korean, won 23 titles on four main tours of women’s golf, seized control at 31 on the front nine, before two birdies began the back nine. She then hit the right of the 12th green and brought everyone back into the tournament by making a bogey on the par 5.
However, she bouncing off her 16-foot birdie putt to get out of her four-sided tie, and she putts two for a birdie on a par 5 17 to get the lead back.
She was in her best form in the playoffs. The combination of wind and resilient greens in particular made it difficult to land green shots where. Kim’s approach in the playoffs was unfolding perfectly.
They finished at 22 under 266. Kim won $337,500 and sent over $10 million for her career on the LPGA Tour.
Hal couldn’t get a putt to drop into the final group and had to finish five shots at 71. Defending champion Nelly Korda fell out of the mix on Saturday and shot 69 on Sunday, finishing with a 22nd tie.
Next week’s LPGA will travel 300 miles north for a T-Mobile matchplay in Shadow Creek, north of Las Vegas.