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In winds that steadily exceeded 30 mph, Hee Young Park won the ISPS Handa Vic Open in Australia on Sunday, making par on the fourth playoff hole to defeat Hye-Jin Choi after So Yeon Ryu had been eliminated on the second extra hole. All three players finished at 8-under par on the Beach Course at 13th Beach Golf Links after Park closed with a 73, Choi a 69 and Ryu a 72. Choi was one of two women to break 70 in the final round. It was Park’s first LPGA victory in more than six years, going back to the 2013 Manulife Financial LPGA Classic.
It means that men and women playing together is more than a novelty. This second edition of the reconfigured ISPS Handa Vic Open, in which men and women compete in two tournaments on the same courses at the same time for equal prize money, garnered plenty of interest. And not just because of the format. You had the brother/sister duo of Min Woo Lee, who ran away from the field in the men’s tournament with a 19-under-par total, and his older sister Minjee, who finished T6 on the women’s side, just two shots out of the playoff.
You had Ireland’s Leona Maguire, who apparently felt right at home in the howling winds and shot 70 on Sunday to finish T4, missing the playoff by a single stroke.
You had Madelene Sagström, who played in the final group for the second time in as many starts but with very different results. Sagström won the Gainbridge LPGA at Boca Rio in Florida late last month, before the LPGA Tour headed Down Under. And she led through the first two rounds in Victoria before falling a stroke behind Korean LPGA Tour player Ayean Cho in the third round. But while Sagström had shown remarkable grit in Florida, she blew up in the Australian winds, shooting 81 to finish T20, one shot behind Cho, who also shot 81.
While every player wished she had a shot or two back, no one was more disappointed by a single swing than Ryu, who stood on the 18th tee after making consecutive birdies at Nos. 16 and 17 needing only one more birdie to win her first LPGA title in nearly two years. The last hole was a downwind par-5 that most players reached in two with short irons if they found the fairway. But Ryu pulled her tee shot out of play, took a penalty and scrambled for par just to make the playoff.
Two holes later, Ryu missed an 8-footer for birdie to be the first of three players eliminated. Then, on the fourth extra trip down 18, Choi hit a poor drive under some trees and then banged her ball out of play, allowing Park to cruise in with an easy par.
“I was going to stop golf,” Park said afterward, referring to her serious thoughts of retirement when she had to return to LPGA Q-Series last fall.
But her husband talked her into giving the game one more shot. Now she has her third career victory at age 32.
“This is payback to my family and husband,” she said. “I’m getting old compared to other Korean girls on the LPGA and they keep grinding. Because I made it, because I won the event, I hope to inspire other young golfers.”
RESULTS | MONEY LIST
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