Sung Hyun Park earned her third victory of the season after defeating Lizette Salas in a sudden-death playoff at the Indy Women in Tech Championship.
Sung Hyun Park earned her third victory of the season after defeating Lizette Salas in a sudden-death playoff at the Indy Women in Tech Championship.
Lizette Salas held a two-shot lead heading into yesterday’s final round in Indianapolis. After opening rounds of 62, 69, and 64, Salas had led the tournament at almost every stage, but bogeys at the 10th and 17th yesterday opened up an opportunity for Sung Hyun Park which she gladly took.
Park fired a round of 4-under par, 68, in yesterday’s closing round to force a playoff with American Salas. After sharing the lead at 23-under par, Park, from the Republic of Korea, only need one hole to complete her victory and claim her third title win of the season.
As the first player to win the Rolex Rookie of the Year and Rolex Player of the Year awards in the same year since Nancy Lopez in 1978, Park is now projected to take the most prestigious title of them all as World Number 1. Currently ranked number 4, Park is likely to overtake Ariya Jutanugarn in the top spot of the Rolex Women’s World Golf Rankings following her win in Indianapolis this weekend. Park held the title for a week in November last year and was the fourth Korean player to reach World Number One in the history of the rankings, following in the footsteps of Jiyai Shin, Inbee Park, So Yeon Ryu, Sung Hyun Park.
Behind Park and Salas, the leaderboard was pretty tightly packed. Amy Yang finished in 3rd place at 22-under, closely followed by Jin Youg Ko in 4th at 20-under, and Danielle Kang and Angel Yin who tied for 5th at 19-under. A cluster of players all tied at 18-under par for 7th spot, including Brooke Henderson and Ariya Jutanugarn.
Bronte Law and Jodi Ewart Shadoff both put in impressive performances over the weekend. Closing with birdies at holes 17 and 18 yesterday, England’s Law finished the tournament tied 12th at 17-under par after a final round of 66, 5-under par, whilst compatriot Ewart Shadoff shot one of the lowest scores of the day, 64, to move up the leaderboard on Sunday and tie 21st. Ewart Shadoff fired a string of birdies in the final round to shoot 8-under par, with five birdies in the first nine holes, and four more back. She made an unfortunate bogey at the 16th but quickly followed that up with a birdie at the last.
Image credit: Andy Lyons/Getty Images
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