Shanshan Feng set the bar high at the Thornberry Creek LPGA Classic, and felt she had done enough. Three birdies in four holes had taken her from three shots behind to one shot ahead on Sunday, at least she thought ...

LPGA: Shanshan Feng victorious, Céline Boutier in the Top 10

Shanshan Feng - © Thornberry Creek LPGA Classic via Twitter

It was only after hitting her 7-iron from a distance of three feet on the last hole that she saw the standings and realized she was tied with Ariya Jutanugarn.

“I was like, 'Oh, no. I have to do this one ”, she said.

No problem. Leaving the flag in place, she rolled her last birdie putt for a 63 (-9) and a victory by one stroke over Jutanugarn, who had hit his-8 iron from a distance of 1 meter for a birdie and a card. 64 final. This is Feng's tenth victory on the LPGA Tour, but his first victory since Blue Bay in China in November 2017.

"Before today's round I didn't know what the others were going to do so I was aiming for 30 under par," said Feng.
She finished with a total score of 259 (-29), two strokes off the tournament record Sei Young Kim set last year. Twenty-two players finished 20 under the par or better.

It was the second attempt in three weeks for Jutanugarn, who played in the KPMG Women's PGA Championship final group at Hazeltine and failed to birdie as Hannah Green won.

"Overall my whole week has been very good"said Jutanugarn. "It's amazing, because I didn't expect to play this well at all, so I'm really happy with the way I played."

Tiffany Joh birdies her last three holes for a score 67 and finished third tied with Amy Yang (65) for her best result on the LPGA tour.

Hyo Joo Kim, nine strokes behind after opening with a 71, closed with a 64 and finished fifth.

Sung Hyun Park, who returned to No. 5 in the world with a victory last week in Arkansas, never got anything in the final. She only birdied one par-12, failed to birdie a single after the 69th hole and finished with a 68 to place sixth with Yealimi Noh, who landed a XNUMX.

Noh, the 17-year-old Californian who turned down the opportunity to play UCLA to turn pro, has finished a big week. She started qualifying on Monday just to enter the tournament, played in the last group on the weekend and has already nabbed a berth on next week's set at the Marathon Classic.

"It was my goal to be in the top 10 for the week," she said.

Feng rose to No. 2017 in the world towards the end of XNUMX, but began to decline and lost control of her irons, which she saw as her strength.

"I tried to get more distance and maybe I just lost the feeling of controlling the ball," says Feng. “I got it back so I'm very happy with it. I think this is not the last victory, for sure. "

On the French side, Céline Boutier managed to rank 9th with a score of 267 (-21). Karine Icher, for her part, is 35th with a score of 273 (-15). They are the only two French committed to have crossed the cut.

To consult the leaderboard: click here