SAMMAMISH, Wash. — Amy Yang constructed an enormous lead and survived a few late errors to win her long-awaited first main title on Sunday, a three-shot victory within the KPMG Ladies’s PGA Championship.
Yang closed with an even-par 72 at Sahalee to complete at 7-under 281. She was almost flawless for the primary 15 holes and reached 10 below for the event for a seven-shot lead earlier than working into a bit little bit of bother. However none of her pursuers was capable of mount a big cost.
At age 34, Yang is the oldest main winner on the LPGA Tour since Angela Stanford gained the 2018 Evian Championship at age 40. Anna Nordqvist had not too long ago turned 34 when she gained the AIG Ladies’s Open in 2021.
This was Yang’s seventy fifth main begin, essentially the most earlier than a participant’s first main title since Stanford, who was enjoying her 76th.
Yang’s sixth LPGA victory was her first since final yr’s CME Group Tour Championship, which was additionally the latest victory by a South Korean participant. She earned a spot within the Paris Olympics, the place she is going to signify South Korea for the third time.
Twice earlier in her profession, Yang held the 54-hole lead in a significant solely to fall quick. On the 2014 U.S. Ladies’s Open at Pinehurst, Yang was tied with Michelle Wie going into the ultimate spherical, however shot 74 as Wie gained. A yr later in the identical event at Lancaster Nation Membership, Yang had a three-shot benefit, however In Gee Chun shot 66 to win by one.
This time, Lilia Vu and Jin Younger Ko every shot 71 to tie for second at 4 below. Vu shot three rounds below par, however couldn’t overcome a 75 within the first spherical.
Yang was remarkably regular till her last few holes. She made 5 bogeys over her first 69 holes earlier than she three-putted the sixteenth. Then she pushed her tee shot on the par-3 seventeenth properly proper and it bounced right into a lake, resulting in double bogey.
Yang steadied herself with an ideal tee shot on the par-5 18th, resulting in a two-putt par and a large celebration on the inexperienced, the place she was doused with champagne by a number of gamers.
Yang held a two-shot benefit when she stepped to the primary tee on a cooler Sunday after three straight days of above-average temperatures. The entrance 9 noticed breezes whistle by way of the towering bushes to the purpose play needed to be paused so pollen buds might be blown off the greens.
Yang was unfazed. By the point she made the flip, she led by 5. Yang birdied the primary gap, chipped in for birdie from 23 yards off the inexperienced on the fifth and dropped a 7-foot birdie putt on the eighth — the hardest gap on the course — to maneuver to 9 below.
When she hit into the bushes on No. 10 and made bogey, Yang responded with a birdie on the eleventh and made her last birdie on the thirteenth.
Enjoying within the last group with Yang, Lauren Hartlage had an opportunity to tie the lead at 8 below, however her 5-foot birdie attempt on the par-5 sixth gap caught the left edge, spun across the cup and stayed out. Hartlage made double bogeys at Nos. 7 and eight and made the flip six pictures behind. She tied for fifth at 3 below, her finest profession end.
