HAINAN, China — After two double bogeys on the entrance 9 to take the lead, Mi-Hyang Li hit a lob wedge to the pin on Sunday’s last gap for a tap-in birdie and a winner, successful the Blue Bay LPGA by one stroke.
Lee closed with a 1-over 73, giving him a one-shot victory over Zhang Weiwei, who shot a 69 at Jiang Lake Blue Bay however misplaced the lead with a bogey on the seventeenth gap. This was Lee’s third LPGA title and first in additional than eight years.
“I nearly gave up, however my caddy saved telling me, ‘Hold combating, maintain combating,’ so I actually fought, did not surrender, and made a whole lot of birdies,” mentioned Lee, who shot a 40 on the entrance 9 and had three birdies. “It feels nice.”
The Korean participant completed with an 11-under 277, her first win for the reason that Girls’s Scottish Open in 2017.
Auston Kim, 71, remained in rivalry for the LPGA title for the second straight week after the American completed runner-up on the HSBC Girls’s World Championship in Singapore, making three birdies in her last 5 holes to tie for third place with India’s Aditi Ashok, 72.
“I am proud that I made three birdies, nevertheless it’s actually disappointing to play so properly on Thursday and Friday and never have the ability to make it. It is actually irritating,” Kim mentioned. “I hope I don’t make the identical errors I made this week and play higher sooner or later.”
Going into the ultimate, Lee’s three-stroke lead disappeared in a turbulent entrance 9 with a double bogey on the par-4 fifth and ninth holes, and he misplaced the result in Jang.
However after the flip, Li discovered his rhythm and birdied the tenth and thirteenth to maintain his distance from the Chinese language participant, earlier than Zhang’s bogey on the seventeenth opened the door for Li.
Lee left 75 yards to the outlet on the par-5 18th and went as much as the inexperienced to see the place he would drop to hit the highest pin. As Lee put her arms above her head in disbelief, her 58-degree wedge hit the pin and fell two ft away.
“I simply maintain saying, ‘Oh my God, that is loopy,'” Lee mentioned.
Defending champion Rio Takeda (73 years previous) of Japan tied for fifth place with Choi Hye Jin (72 years previous), China’s Liu Yu (74 years previous) and South Korea’s Kim Ah Lim (73 years previous).
The Blue Bay LPGA was the primary Asian Swing of the season and the third consecutive LPGA occasion. Every week after 9 of the world’s prime 10 gamers performed in Singapore, there was just one prime 10 participant on the sphere in China. It was former Girls’s PGA Champion Luoning Ying of China. He shot a 76 and completed tied for twenty fourth with a 1-over 289.
The LPGA will take per week off and resume its U.S. schedule with the Founders Cup in California.
