FRISCO, Texas — Minjee Lee closed with a 2-over 74 however by no means gave up the lead Sunday within the remaining spherical of the KPMG Girls’s PGA Championship to win her third main title.
Whereas Lee had three bogeys in a four-hole stretch on the entrance 9, she had began the day with a four-stroke lead over Jeeno Thitikul. And the world’s No. 2-ranked participant, additionally in that remaining group, bogeyed each par 5s which can be among the many first three holes on Fields Ranch East at PGA Frisco.
Lee, ranked twenty fourth, completed at 4-under 284, three strokes forward of Auston Kim and Chanettee Wannasaen, the one different gamers to complete underneath par.
Kim and Wannasaen each shot 68 to match the perfect rounds of the day and the match after solely two 68s mixed the primary three rounds. Kim performed with no bogey, however she had solely pars after three consecutive birdies to wrap up her entrance 9.
With a document $12 million purse that was up from $10.4 million a yr in the past and matched the U.S. Girls’s Open for probably the most worth cash, Lee took dwelling $1.8 million — the identical quantity she earned for her four-stroke win within the 2022 U.S. Girls’s Open at Pine Needles.
The 29-year-old Australian who’s a Texas resident, residing in close by Irving, bought her eleventh profession win. It was her first this season, making it 16 gamers to win 16 LPGA tournaments this season.
Lee, who additionally received the 2021 Evian Championship in France, now wants both the AIG Girls’s Open or The Chevron Championship to finish the profession grand slam, which is outlined in girls’s golf as successful 4 totally different majors (there are at present 5).
Whereas nonetheless windy prefer it had been all week at 15-20 mph, there weren’t the fixed gusts of 30 mph or extra that had made the enjoying situations so troublesome Saturday.
Thitikul, nonetheless in quest of her first main title, had the solo lead after the primary and second rounds. However she fell behind taking pictures a 76 on Saturday, when Lee had the one bogey-free spherical for any participant till then. Thitikul then hit her first shot of the ultimate spherical into the precise tough on strategy to a 75 to complete at 1 over 289, tied for fourth with Chisato Iwai (71).
Lee’s lead Sunday by no means bought underneath two, and he or she preserved that with a clutch 8-foot par putt on the 170-yard thirteenth gap to remain at 3 underneath. That took place the identical time Wannasaen rolled in a 14-foot eagle putt on the 235-yard par-4 fifteenth gap to get to 1 underneath, although the 21-year-old from Thailand then missed the inexperienced and bogeyed the 455-yard sixteenth.
There was a delicate fist pump from Lee when she then made a 9-foot birdie at No. 14, the one par 5 on the again 9, and adopted with one other birdie at No. 15. She was the one participant this week with two rounds within the 60s, with 69s on Thursday and Saturday.
Lee’s first bogey was on the par-5 third after her third shot went right into a deep greenside bunker, then she had back-to-back bogeys on the 441-yard fifth and 434-yard sixth gap. She did not have a birdie till the ninth to make the flip at 4 underneath — on the time three forward of Thitikul and Kim.
Kim began the ultimate spherical 9 strokes again, which was two greater than the document comeback for a girls’s main. A number of gamers have achieved that, together with Lee when she received the 2021 Evian Championship by coming from seven again for her first main title.
The 24-year-old Kim opened her spherical with a 5-foot birdie putt on the 528-yard par 5 first. She bought inside two strokes of Lee after the three birdies to wrap up her entrance 9. Her tee shot on the 157-yard eighth gap stopped a foot from the cup, and that eagle was sandwiched by a pair of two 1/2-foot birdies earlier than ending with 9 consecutive pars.
Nelly Korda, the world’s top-ranked participant, and semi-retired Lexi Thompson each closed with 76s.
Thompson, within the second-to-last group for the second day in a row, completed tied for twelfth at 293. The 30-year-old, who performed for under the seventh time in 16 tournaments this season, has gone 11 years since her solely main win within the 2014 Kraft Nabisco Championship.
Korda tied for nineteenth at 6-over 294 and nonetheless hasn’t received this yr after successful seven instances final season.
