It was a tale of the underdog in the final round at TPC Boston on Sunday as China’s Miranda Wang lost the lead to the No.1 player in women’s golf Jeeno Thitikul, but quickly gained it back with some clutch shots over the final three holes to card a two-under-par final round and win by one stroke at 20-under.
Wang became the seventh LPGA rookie to win this year, extending a remarkable streak of no multiple winners through the tour’s first 23 tournaments of the year.
“This is a dream come true,” said Wang. “I hope this is the first of many, and I’ll keep working hard,” she added emotionally.
Wang was being hunted by Thailand’s Jeeno Thikitul, who took over the No.1 ranking from Nelly Korda three weeks ago, and was set to catch Wang as they were closing out the final three holes, but Thikitul made bogey with an over hit greenside chip on the 17th as Wang pulled away with an impressive birdie.
“I don’t think I did anything wrong. Just technique-wise just some mistakes,” Thitikul said.
Thitikul finished in a solo second place at 19-under, closely followed by South Korea’s Sei Young Kim who finished solo third at 17-under.
The lowest round of the day went to Jin Hee Im who carded a superb 10-under-par 62 to see the 27-year-old fly up the final day leaderboard and finish tied for fifth alongside Rose Zhang.
USA’s Nelly Korda, a seven-time winner last year, closed with a disappointing three-over-par 75 as the World No.2 dropped down the leaderboard to tie for 35th, 14 shots behind Wang.
The LPGA has 24 winners in 23 tournaments with one of them being a team event, before it’s on to Cincinnati in two weeks for the Kroger Queen City Championship.
Leaderboard.
