Lilia Vu earned her first LPGA Tour win of the season, defeating Lexi Thompson and Grace Kim in a playoff at the Meijer LPGA Classic.
Vu overturned an eight-stroke deficit on a thrilling final day at Blythefield Country Club and shot a bogey-free 65 to finish at 16 under par with Kim and Thompson, who squandered a five-shot lead all night.
The trio birdied the first two extra playoff holes, both on the par-5 18th, before Vu recorded the winning birdie on the third extra playoff hole. Thompson and Kim could only record par to claim their fifth LPGA Tour wins. Title and first of the year.
Lexi Thompson congratulates Lilia Vu after her playoff win.
“I couldn’t believe it,” Vu said. “I couldn't believe I won this week. I think I set the bar too low to achieve my goal. When I try to win, I tend to get in my own way and that's when I fail, because most of the time I don't win. “I try to stay in my lane, take advantage of every good shot and make birdie putts.”
Vu's comeback was one stroke bigger than last week's seven-stroke deficit overturned by Sweden's Linnea Strom at the ShopRite LPGA Classic, and four birdies over the final six holes helped her post a low round of the day. .
Thompson tied Vu with a birdie on the 18th hole for a 4-under 68, while Kim had a birdie and eight pars in the bottom half of a final-round 73 but failed to maintain a significant lead all night.
Vu has four wins in 2023 and will be one of the favorites to win the KPMG Women's PGA Championship. Sky Sports live broadcastA back injury kept her out of last month's U.S. Women's Open.
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Highlights from the final round of the 2023 AIG Women's Open at Walton Heath, where Lilia Vu won her second major title of the season.
“It's hard to feel 100 percent, but I think I'm 95 percent. Obviously, I'm feeling a little tight because I played more than 18 holes today,” Vu said. “Everything is fine. It’s not the same.”
Thompson, an 11-time winner on the LPGA Tour who announced last month that she would retire from full-time competition at the end of the season, is nowhere near ending her five-year title drought.
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“I knew I was five strokes behind when I started the day, so I knew I had to pedal and make a lot of birdies off the jump,” Thompson said. “I can only control what I can control. So I tried to focus on one scene at a time and play with myself and my emotions. That was all I could do. Whatever happened, it happened. “I’m so happy with the results.”
Ally Ewing had four consecutive birdies on the front nine and briefly finished at 17 under par for the tournament, but finished with bogey-bogey-birdie to take fourth place. Allisen Corpuz and South Korea's Narin An both shot 70s in the final round to tie for fifth place.
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The women's major season continues with the KPMG Women's PGA Championship at Sahalee Country Club in Washington, with all four rounds broadcast live on Sky Sports. The live coverage starts at 9pm on Thursday via the Red Button and on Sky Sports Golf at 11pm. Stream the LPGA, majors and more with NOW.
