Wie: ‘Winning is everything’
Yes! 28-year-old leaps with joy as 36-foot putt succeeds; Canada’s Henderson ties for second
SINGAPORE — Michelle Wie holed a 36-foot putt from off the green on the final hole to win the Women’s World Championship golf tournament by one stroke on Sunday while Canada’s Brooke Henderson tied for second.
Wie captured her first LPGA tournament since the 2014 U.S. Women’s Open.
With four players in contention to win on the last hole, Wie managed to separate herself from the pack when she drained her lengthy birdie putt on the 72nd hole at the Sentosa Golf Club for a final round of 7-under 65 to finish at 17-under 271.
Henderson, of Smiths Falls, finished 16 under alongside South Korea’s Jenny Shin and Americans Danielle Kang and Nelly Korda. The 28-year-old Wie, who led the tournament after three rounds a year ago before fading on the last day, leaped into the air and clenched her fist in celebration as the ball disappeared into the bottom of the cup.
But she still faced an anxious wait before being declared the champion.
“Winning is everything. I mean, there is no better feeling than when you think you sink that winning putt. It’s a high, for sure,” Wie said.
“You go out there, and it’s this feeling that gets you going. It’s this feeling that makes you practise. It’s that winning putt that makes you practise for hours and hours and hours, and even the hard times, it gets you going back. You know that good feeling is on the other side.”
Third-round leader Korda parred her last eight holes in a row. The 19-year-old, who only joined the LPGA Tour last year, hit a superb approach into the 18th to set up a birdie opportunity that would have forced a playoff but missed her eight-foot putt and settled for a final-round 71.
“I had a bunch of putts that were really close and a lot of them lipped and burned edges. It definitely hurts, but that’s golf,” Korda said.
“There’s going to be another tournament. There’s going to be another feeling like this. Just have to keep going forward”.
Kang, last year’s Singapore winner, parred her last 14 holes and was unable to drain a longer birdie putt on the last to miss out on a playoff as she closed with a 70. Shin closed with a 65 and Henderson 67.
Shin held the outright lead when she teed off at the last after reeling off eight birdies between the sixth and 16th holes, but she dropped back to 16-under when she made her only bogey of the day on the final hole.
“The nerves got me, maybe,” Shin said. “Not sure if I would have made that mistake on many other holes. Oh, well.”
Wie said, “It’s been a tough journey since 2014. I think it’s been kind of well-documented. You know, I’ve had some injuries, had a really bad year, just lost a lot of confidence,” Wie said.
“But I’m just really proud of myself for pulling myself out of it. I felt like I had a good year last year, a year where I built confidence, and I just want to keep building confidence from there.”