BETHESDA, Md. — In Gee Chun of South Korea rallied after shedding the remainder of her once-sizeable lead, overcoming a bogey-filled entrance 9 to win the Women’s P.G.A. Championship on Sunday when Lexi Thompson faltered together with her putter.
Chun shot a three-over-par 75 for the second consecutive day at Congressional Country Club outdoors Washington, D.C., however that was sufficient for her to win her third profession main title by a stroke over Thompson, an American, and Minjee Lee of Australia. Chun, after main by six strokes on the match’s halfway level, misplaced a three-shot benefit within the first three holes of the ultimate spherical. Thompson led her by two strokes after the entrance 9, however Thompson’s placing issues had been simply starting.
Thompson, 27, botched a par putt from a few toes on No. 14, however a birdie on the fifteenth gap restored her result in two strokes. Then she bogeyed the par-5 sixteenth gap whereas Chun birdied, leaving the gamers tied with two holes remaining.
Thompson three-putted for bogey on No. 17, and after a formidable strategy from the tough on the 18th gap, her birdie putt wasn’t hit firmly sufficient.
Chun’s strategy on the par-4 18th bounced previous the opening and simply off the again of the inexperienced, however she putted to inside about 5 toes and sank her par try for the win.
Chun, 27, led by seven strokes after ending her spherical with an eight-under-par 64 in moist situations Thursday. Her lead was down to 5 on the finish of that day — nonetheless equaling the most important 18-hole benefit within the historical past of girls’s main tournaments.
She was six strokes forward on the midway level and had a three-shot benefit coming into Sunday. She completed the match with a 283, 5 beneath par.
Chun received her first main on the U.S. Women’s Open in 2015 and added the Evian Championship in France the next 12 months.
Thompson hasn’t received an L.P.G.A. Tour occasion since 2019, and her lone main victory got here as a teen at Mission Hills within the California desert in 2014. She has actually had probabilities: She misplaced a five-stroke lead through the last spherical of final 12 months’s U.S. Women’s Open at The Olympic Club in San Francisco.
This 12 months, she was 10 strokes again after the primary spherical earlier than steadily chasing down Chun. Thompson made birdies on Nos. 1 and three on Sunday. Chun bogeyed Nos. 2 and 4 to fall out of the lead.
Thompson missed brief birdie putts on the eighth and ninth holes — foreshadowing her issues later within the spherical — however Chun’s 40 on the entrance 9 left her two again on the flip. Sei Young Kim, who had made it to 6 beneath at one level, bogeyed holes eight, 10, 11 and 12 and fell out of competition. She completed the match in a five-way tie for fifth.
When Chun made her first birdie of the day on the par-5 eleventh, Thompson answered with a birdie of her personal to stay two photographs forward at seven beneath. When Thompson bogeyed 12, so did Chun.
The sixteenth gap, the place Chun needed to take an unplayable lie and made double bogey Saturday, was the turning level in her favor within the last spherical. Thompson was simply brief and proper of the inexperienced in two photographs however took 4 from there to make bogey, whereas Chun rolled in her birdie putt after an extended wait.
