Chandler, Arizona – Hyo Joo Kim rose from a four-shot deficit Sunday to be under 64, forcing the playoffs, defeating Lilia Vu on the first extra hole and defeating the first extra hole with a 6-foot birdie putt in the Ford Championship game.
King won the game in LPGA for the seventh time and spent a long and wild day from the desert of the Tornado Golf Club, with 10 birdies in the 19 holes she played.
Vu hit a great bunker on the 5th 17 pole to tie Kim Jong Il’s short bird. Her approach on the 18th boundary defined by Green Company, stuffed 7 feet into 7 feet and threw the par putt into the extra hole with 68.
Vu missed about 15 feet of birdie putt to set gold for the victory.
“It feels great today, I just want one hole at a time, one bird at a time,” King said through her interpreter.
Vu led the way with two-stroke lead Charley Hull, who rolled a short birdie in a short bird putt of 5, creating a four-way leading tie with Kim, Allisen Corpuz and Jeeno Thitikul.
Corpuz made two birdies in the last nine games, giving her a lead twice. She finished third with a score of 65. Thitikul competed with three consecutive three birdies, but could only settle for six closed pars to finish fourth with 66.
“If it goes into the top nine, there’s no way to get a few behind, but overall, the week is still very proud,” Corpuz said.
Kim, a 29-year-old Korean, has 23 titles in four major tournaments in women’s golf, taking control with 31 shots in the first nine games, followed by two birdies, starting the last nine. She then hit the water by hitting the water to the right of the twelfth green water and hitting the bogey with 5 strokes.
But she bounced back with an 18-foot birdie putt on the 16th to get out of the four-way tie, and she eliminated the Birds twice on the 5th 17-pointer to regain the lead.
She was at her best in the playoffs, especially the combination of wind and flex vegetables, and it was hard to figure out where to shoot on the green. King’s goal in the playoffs was perfectly launched.
They ended with a 22-shot below 22. King won $337,500 and she paid more than $10 million for her career on the LPGA Tour.
Hull couldn’t get the putter into the final group and had to settle in 71, down five shots. Defending champion Nelly Korda lost on Saturday and scored 69 on Sunday and ended with 22 tie.
Next week, the LPGA moved 300 miles north to compete in the T-Mobile competition at Shadow Creek north of Las Vegas.
