Photo: Courtesy of The PGA
The World’s No. 1 player, Inbee Park, shot a bogey-free four-under 67 on Sunday to win the inaugural North Texas LPGA Shootout by a stroke over Spain’s Carlota Ciganda. The 24-year-old South Korean finished at 13-under 271 for her third victory this season and fifth in her last 18 starts.
Park started the day two strokes behind Ciganda but reduced that deficit in half with a birdie on the opening hole. On the next hole, Ciganda made a bogey on the Par-4 second hole and Park had a share of the lead at 10-under.
But Ciganda showed tremendous poise as she made birdie on the Par-5 third and regained the lead at 11-under.
Ciganda would open a two stroke cushion with another birdie on the Par-3 sixth, moving to 12-under. From there on, both players—playing on the same pairing—would match scores, hole-by-hole for the next eight holes.
Both Park and Ciganda birdie the Par-4 eight and the Par-5 10th hole, with Ciganda maintaining he two stroke lead and looking confident on every shot. Ciganda was at 14-under and Park at 12-under, no other player was in double digits.
But then, Ciganda made bogey and double-bogey on the 14th and 15th holes, dropping to 11-under. The double-bogey on 14th was due to her trying to battle the wind on her approach shot and went too much for it.
She went maybe a club longer with a seven-iron and the ball found the water. She had to go to the drop zone which was about 50 yards from the hole, and while she made a very good shot, leaving it just outside 10 feet, she couldn’t sink the bogey putt.
Park made par on both holes and moved into the lead while staying at 12-under.
Ciganda was able to straighten the ship and made an effort to catch Park on the final three holes. She gave it a good run to a 20-foot birdie putt attempt on the 17th hole that rimmed out of the cup. On that 17th, Park had a 10-foot birdie putt that could have put the nail on the coffin, but missed it right in what looked like a very uncharacteristic pull.
Ciganda went for it on the Par-5 18th and put the pressure on Park by making a birdie. Park, the best putter on the tour, had a six-foot putt for birdie and the win. She sank the putt with ease and sealed her third win of the season.
Park went bogey-free the final 35 holes and that pretty much sealed it for her. Ciganda made bogey on the second and 15th hole, but her demise was the double bogey on the 14th. She was crushing her drives averaging 287 yards and hit 10-of-13 fairways.
The tournament’s name is the North Texas LPGA Shootout, and it delivered as one. Park and Ciganda went right at it on the final pairing and put on a shootout worthy of Wild West times.
Suzann Pettersen, the winner in Hawaii last week, had a closing 66 to get to 10-under and finish in solo third. She made four birdies on the front nine and made the turn at nine-under.
But she failed to take advantage of the Par-5 10th—the easiest hole on the course—and made bogey on the Par-3 11th. She fell to eight-under and her rally was stalled.
Hee Young Park was bogey-free and had the lowest round of the day at 64, to match Caroline Masson for the tournament lowest round score. She would finished tied for fourth at nine-under with fellow South Korean So Yeon Ryu.
I.K. Kim finished in solo sixth at eight under, while World’s No. 2 Stacey Lewis, rallied with a 66 final round and earned her fifth Top 10 finish of the season. She finished in a four-way tie for seventh with China’s Shanshan Feng, France’s Karine Icher and World’s No. 3, South Korean Na Yeon Choi.
Choi had gone 44 holes without a bogey, and made the turn at nine-under. But bogeys on the first three holes on the back nine took her out of contention.
First round leader, German rookie Caroline Masson, was still within reasonable striking distance at nine-under after 10 holes. But had three bogeys and a double-bogey to go along with one birdie, to finish with a 75 and tied for 15th at five-under.
Other notables, Paula Creamer shot a 66 to finish tied for 11th at six under and World’s No. 4 Yani Tseng shot a 73 and finished tied for 28th at two-under.
Action on the LPGA continues next May 2-5 from with the Kingsmill Championship from the Kingsmill Resort’s River Course in Williamsburg, VA.