Lilia Wu earned her first win of the LPGA Tour season after defeating Lexi Thompson and Grace Kim in a playoff on the Meijer LPGA Basic.
Wu overturned an eight-shot deficit on an exhilarating last day at Blythefield Nation Membership, taking pictures a 65 to complete on 16, together with Kim – who squandered a five-shot lead in a single day – and Thompson.
The trio all birdied the 18th on each of the primary further playoff holes earlier than Wu posted the profitable birdie on the third further playoff gap — as Thompson and Kim may solely make par — to say her fifth LPGA Tour title and first 12 months
Lexi Thompson congratulated Lilia Wu on her playoff win
“I simply could not consider it,” Wu mentioned. “I could not consider I received this week. I believe I set my bar actually low to achieve it. I believe when I attempt to win, I are likely to get in the way in which. I do not win more often than not, so I simply attempt keep in my lane, use all the great pictures and make all of the birdies I get.”
Wu’s comeback was one stroke greater than final week’s seven-shot deficit that Sweden’s Linnea Strom overturned on the ShopRite LPGA Basic, with 4 birdies within the final six holes to assist her to the low spherical of the day.
Thompson birdied the 18th for a four-under 68 to tie Wu, whereas Kim made one birdie and eight pars during the last 9 of her last spherical of 73 and was unable to carry on to her sizable in a single day lead.
Wu has received 4 occasions in 2023 and shall be one of many favorites to win the KPMG PGA Ladies’s Championship. stay on Sky Sports activitiesafter lacking final month’s US Ladies’s Open whereas battling a again harm.
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Highlights from the ultimate spherical of the 2023 AIG Ladies’s Open at Walton Heath, the place Lilia Wu claimed her second main title of the season.
“It is arduous to really feel one hundred pc, however I believe I used to be 95 %, and I believe clearly I performed greater than 18 holes in the present day, so I am feeling slightly tight,” Wu mentioned. “Every thing is okay, not what it was.”
Thompson, an 11-time winner on the LPGA Tour who introduced final month that she is going to retire from full-time competitors on the finish of the season, has not had time to finish her five-year title drought.
PGA Ladies’s Championship Reside
Thursday, June 20, 11 p.m
“Realizing that I used to be 5 pictures behind to start out the day, I knew I needed to push the pedal and make a variety of birdies from the soar,” Thompson mentioned. “I can solely management what I can management, so I simply tried to concentrate on one shot at a time and play inside myself and my feelings. It was all I may do. No matter occurred with the end result occurred, so proud of the end result.”
Ellie Ewing had a streak of 4 straight birdies on her entrance 9 and briefly touched 17 below for the event, however a bogey-bogey-birdie end left her tied for fourth. Alisen Corpuz and Naryn Ahn of South Korea tied seventieth within the last spherical to share fifth place.
What’s subsequent?
The ladies’s premier season continues on the KPMG Ladies’s PGA Championship at Sahalee Nation Membership in Washington, with all 4 rounds stay on Sky Sports activities. Reside protection begins on Thursday from 9pm through the pink button and at 11pm on Sky Sports activities Golf. Stream the LPGA, majors and extra from NOW.