Hull wins title while Ariya, Chun take LPGA awards
MIAMI: Thai land’s Ariya Jutanugarn took LPGA Player of the Year honors and a US$1 million bonus prize Sunday while Britain’s Charley Hull captured the seasonending Tour Championship with a 72-hole course record.
The final day of the 2016 campaign also saw South Korean Chun InGee birdie the last three holes to edge New Zealand’s top-ranked Lydia Ko for the Vare Trophy for the season’s low scoring average in a battle that went down to the last stroke.
Ariya, whose first five LPGA titles this year included her first major at the Women’s British Open, only shared fourth but with teenager Ko only sharing 10th, the result was good enough to claim Player of the Year and Race to the Globe season points bonus.
“I had my goal to win my first tournament and I did. To win the Player of the Year, it’s huge,” said the Thai.
Hull, a 20-year-old from England, won her first US title and first crown since 2014 by firing a finalround 66, six-under par, to finish on 19-under 269 — shattering the old Tiburon Golf Club mark of 271 set by American Cristie Kerr last year.
“I was pretty calm,” Hull said. “When I’m on the golf course I try not to think about golf. It makes me think I’m not leading the golf tournament and that’s what I did.”
I had my goal to win my first tournament and I did. To win the Player of the Year, it’s huge. Ariya Jutanugarn
Hull, ranked 30th in the world, had not won since taking the Lalla Meryem Cup in March of 2014 at age 17 in Morocco on the Ladies European Tour.
Hul l, who made only eight birdies last year at the Naples, Florida course, sank 23 this year, including an all-but clincher on the penultimate hole.
Level with South Korea’s Soyeon Ryu after a day-long duel, Hull birdied the par-five 17th hole while Ryu made bogey and both closed with pars to end the last drama on a day of intense trophy fights.
Ryu fired a 67 to finish second on 271 while Jennifer Song birdied five of the last six holes to shoot 68 and take third on 273, one stroke ahead of fellow American Mo Martin, Spain’s Beatriz Recari and Ariya.
Three days before her 21st birthday, Ariya took the Race to the Globe with 6,800 points to 5,050 for Ko despite the Kiwi’s secondround 62. — AFP