Victory for Jennifer Kupcho at the Meijer LPGA Classic for Simply Give, who won her second career title after a playoff against defending champion Nelly Korda and Ireland's Leona Maguire. Céline Boutier ended her week ten shots off the lead in 40th place.

Meijer LPGA Classic: Jennifer Kupcho takes victory after a thrilling three-way playoff

©cafeapamate via Twitter

Jennifer Kupcho got off to a rocky start on Sunday at the Meijer LPGA Classic for Simply Give, but the 25-year-old bounced back to clinch her second career title after a thrilling playoff against defending champion Nelly Korda and the Irish Leona Maguire. By returning a 71 (-1) card in the last round of the Meijer LPGA Classic.

Kupcho double-bogeyed on the 3 and bogeyed on the 6 to go down to (-14) three shots behind Korda, but she bounced back quickly with an eagle on the par-5 of the 8 and a birdie on the 9 for come back to (-17) one step ahead. Korda set the record straight with a birdie at 10, and both players birdied at 12 to end up at (-18). But Maguire did not stay on the sidelines of the conversation. She birdied back-to-back on 13 and 14 to move to (-17) – one point off the lead at that time – posting a final birdie on the final hole to return to command of the Meijer LPGA Classic at 18 under. the by.

As the bar was set, Kupcho bogeyed the 16th and Korda birdied the 18th to level Maguire and force a three-man playoff. Things seemed to be over when Kupcho hit her second shot from within a yard with an 8-iron on the first playoff hole, but she missed her eagle putt. After a three-putt from Korda, Kupcho and Maguire returned to the tee, and it was ultimately a short miss from Maguire that gave Kupcho his second career LPGA Tour victory as well as the $375 prize pool that accompanies him.

 

See this post on Instagram

 

A post shared by LPGA Tour (@lpga_tour)

“I thought she was going to succeed”, Kupcho said. “When she hit it close to the hole and I still had to putt from the rim, I thought it was a no-win because I was shaking and had missed a putt the same length. But once I tapped in, I was already looking at the rules official to move on to the next hole. Honestly, it was just a shock. She went to Duke, I went to Wake Forest. I played with her so much, she never misses her putts. I was really in shock”.

This victory at the Meijer LPGA Classic comes two and a half months after Kupcho took his first victory at the Rolex Chevron Championship earlier this year, but this victory has a little different impact, especially on Father's Day.

“I think this one is even better than the first one personally”, Kupcho said. “I had such a lead going into the last round at Chevron, so coming out of that round with top-tier players everywhere, the standings were packed, within a couple of strokes, so it was really tight, and I I'm very proud of myself for getting out of it. I said to myself this morning that I had to call (my father), but I repeated to myself: “No, we will call him after the round with the trophy in hand” and I am happy to be able to do it now. »

Although the three-putt on the first hole of the playoff was painful, Nelly Korda took many positives from her week at Blythefield Country Club. Spending time away from golf has given the Rolex Ranking No. 2 a bit of a step back, and while she would have loved to defend her title, she is very happy with the state of her game after so little. departures this season.

“I fought to get back on the back nine and snuck into the playoffs”, said Korda, who gets her third top 5 of the season. “Unfortunately, sometimes you have it and sometimes you don't. If you had told me three or four months ago, when I was in the emergency room, that I would be here, I would have been extremely happy. »

Lydia Ko, No. 4 in the Rolex Ranking, had a run of 68, 4 under par on Sunday to finish fourth in solo at (-17), with a quartet of players tied for fifth at the Meijer LPGA Classic at 16 under, including LPGA Tour rookie Atthaya Thitikul and 2015 Meijer LPGA Classic champion Lexi Thompson. 11-time LPGA Tour winner Brooke Henderson and Wei-Ling Hsu complete the top 10 at 15 under par.

Céline Boutier, for her part, finished well before the last games by completing the route of the Blythefield Country Club in (-1). The native of Clamart ranks 40th at -8, ten shots from the play-off, a result without much brilliance which makes her lose a rank in the Race to the CME Globe (12th). Nevertheless, with the approach of the KPMG Women's PGA Championship which begins Thursday at the Congressional Country Club (Maryland) and where she will find Perrine Delacour, Pauline Roussin-Bouchard and Agathe Laisné, the French n ° 1 will be able to rely on the four cards under the par made consecutively in this preparatory tournament for the 3rd Major of the year.

Jennifer Kupcho wins after a thrilling three-way playoff

To view the full leaderboard: click here

To read our last article on the same subject :

Meijer LPGA Classic: summary of the 1st round in video