Japan’s Ayaka Furue gained her first main title by a single shot when she holed an eagle putt from 15 toes on the ultimate inexperienced within the Evian Championship at Evian Resort in France.
Furue powered previous Australian Stephanie Kyriacou to complete on 19-under-par and scoop the $1.2 million first prize.
Locked in a three-way tie for the lead with clubhouse chief Patty Tavatanakit and Kyriacou coming to the 18th, Furue produced a second of pure magic as her second shot flew over the lake defending the inexperienced by the narrowest of margins and ended pin excessive. When she sank the difficult proper to left putt, there was an enormous roar from the galleries.
The 24-year-old from Kobe, who describes herself as too shy to even order her personal meals on the phone, mentioned: “I’m so honoured to be the winner of the 2024 Amundi Evian Championship, with the thirtieth anniversary and tenth anniversary of this being a serious. I didn’t imagine that I may get a serious win, so I’m so completely happy proper now.”
Furue, the midway chief after successive opening rounds of 65, shot a 3rd spherical of 70 and began the ultimate spherical a stroke behind Kyriacou.
Furue mentioned: “Earlier than beginning the ultimate spherical, I felt like I needed to play aggressively at this time, however after I began enjoying, I used to be somewhat bit annoyed as a result of I wasn’t getting many birdies. After the fifteenth gap, I gained confidence and that was actually good for me.”
Furue made birdies on the second and third holes, however three-putted for bogey on the fourth. She birdied the ninth to exit in 33 and was two strokes behind the chief Lauren Coughlin on the flip. She bogeyed the twelfth, however then made one other glorious birdie on the par-3 twelfth, the primary of three in a row.
She mentioned: “I lately turned a Star Wars fan and I like the saying, “Could the power be with you”. I imagine that sentence. That sentence got here into my thoughts on the fifteenth gap and I simply saved going with that in my thoughts.”
Three birdies and an eagle in her ultimate 5 holes closed out the key championship. On 18, she took a 6-iron to hit her second shot from the primary lower of tough to the inexperienced.
Furue added: “Stephanie hit the ball so near the opening along with her third shot so I believed she would make that and I knew I wanted an eagle putt. I felt like I may win this match, as a result of I like this course and I find it irresistible right here, so I really feel very completely happy to win right here.”
Kyriacou, who earned her greatest end in a serious championship, held the outright lead after 16 holes however dropped a shot on 17 after hitting her second shot wanting the inexperienced and catching the third heavy.
After her ultimate spherical of 67, the two-time Women European Tour winner from Sydney mentioned: “It was a very good week. Plenty of positives to remove. I performed nice all week. It sucks to not maintain the trophy, however should you’d advised me I might come second firstly of the week, I might’ve been completely happy. Clearly numerous stuff labored nicely for me this week, so simply making an attempt to maintain the identical mindset going ahead and hopefully I can win.”
Tavatanakit resulted in third place, with Coughlin in fourth, Haeran Ryu in fifth and Pajaree Anannarukarn in sixth.
For the ultimate leaderboard and all of the scores from the Evian Championship, click on right here.
