Grace Kim Secures LOTTE Championship After Three-Way Playoff
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At the LOTTE Championship on Saturday, viewers were treated to a thrilling finale, which saw a three-way playoff between Grace Kim, Yu Liu and Yu Jin Sung, as the trio all finished their final rounds at 12-under-par.
It had been extremely tight throughout the day but, at the first playoff hole, it was 22-year-old, Kim, who claimed her first LPGA Tour title, as the Australian holed a mid-range birdie putt to outlast her fellow competitors and pick up a maiden title in just her third start as a rookie.
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Beginning the fourth round, a number of players were in contention as Sung started one shot ahead of the likes of Major winner, Georgia Hall, with 13 players within three shots of the South Korean.
It was set to be a thrilling watch and, out of the gates, Sung kept her slim advantage intact as she rolled in a birdie putt to be the first player to get to 11-under-par. However, it was a day where the lead would change hands multiple times with that being evident as Linnea Strom went birdie-birdie on the 10th and 11th to take the outright lead.
A costly double bogey on the 14th did ruin her chances for a win though, as the congested leaderboard saw Liu birdie two of her final five holes to set the clubhouse target at 12-under.
With not many players left out on the course, it was left to the final group of Kim and Sung to cause the damage, and that's exactly what they did on the final hole, with both finding birdies to force a three-way playoff in Hawaii.
Certainly, if we were basing the playoff on form, it would be Liu who would take it, as her final round 64 dwarfed Kim's 68 and Sung's 69. In the playoff though, it was Kim who took it, with the young Australian safely rolling in her birdie putt to defeat the scores of par and bogey.
Speaking after her win, Kim stated that: "I think just the birdie on 17 was definitely the big momentum changer. Yeah, just kind of speechless right now... I think after bogeying 14, I think I just tried give it my all. Yeah, I tried my best and it came out to be a good result. So, I mean, birdie on 17, again, of course was a great momentum forward, so definitely gave it an aggressive go on 18, and, yeah, birdied it twice, which is good."
