Ariya Jutanugarn claims her second Kingsmill Championship after 3-way playoff.
For the second time in three years Ariya Jutanugarn has won the Kingsmill Championship, this time after a three way playoff. Her final round of 5-under 66 brought her to a tie at the top with Nasa Hataoka and In Gee Chun on a tournament total of 14-under 199.
Jutanugarn began her round two shots back from Chun. Chun bogeyed the par-five 15th. Hataoka birdied the 15th and joined Jutanugarn on 14-under. Chun then hit a long birdie putt on the 17th and joined the other two, preparing for a playoff.
The playoff hole was the par-4 18th. Chun went first but did not make her putt. Jutanugarn made a birdie putt from 20 feet. Hataoka hit in from eight feet and the two faced their second playoff hole. This time Hataoka putted and missed. Jutanugarn's 15 foot shot secured her win.
19 year old Hataoka had this positive response: “I couldn’t believe I played in a playoff in such an early stage in my career. I’m just going to try to keep going for the rest of the year.”
Chun was ahead at the start. Jutanugarn hit five birdies over six holes to build a two shot lead. Then at the fairly easy par-5 15th hole she hit a bogey.
“After that I got a little bit mad. But my caddie just told me, "We can’t go back and change anything. All we can do is just what we have now. Try to hit a good shot."” Her caddie made sure she kept going through to success.
During the final round 20 year old Canadian Brooke Henderson surged up the board by 44 places to 13-under, where she was just one shot behind the play-off trio. Birdies on the first three holes empowered her rise. She maintained her steady drive throughout the round and wrapped it up with birdies on 15, 16 and 17.
“I had great energy today, I started off with three birdies,” she said. “I felt like I could really go low, which is a great feeling, but I kind of levelled off for a bit and then finished with four birdies on the back, which was awesome.”
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