Final hole bogey costs Ko a playoff spot
A final hole bogey has cost Lydia Ko a place in a playoff to shoot for the title in the last golf major of the year.
The Kiwi ace, who has struggled for form this year, had been tied for the lead late in the final round at the Evian Championship in France after pushing herself up the leaderboard with an eagle on the 15th.
But with the final hole bogey, she dropped to eight under par, one shot behind Brittany Altomare and Anna Nordqvist. Nordqvist took the title in a playoff during driving rain and strong wind.
Moriya Jutanugarn of Thailand (72) and Ko (69) finished in a tie for third with Katherine Kirk of Australia, whose 70 included bogeys at the 16th and 17th as the chilling rain fell.
The tournament was reduced to a three-round event after rain and strong winds caused the first round to be abandoned.
Ko birdied the par-four third and fourth holes, but had a bogey on the par-five seventh.
She had another bogey on the par-five 13th, but a birdie on the par-three 14th and an eagle on the par-five 16th hole had her right back in contention.
But she dropped a shot when she bogeyed the final par-four 18th to finish the round two-under and she fell a shot behind Altomare and Nordqvist.
Sweden’s Nordqvist sank a 4-foot putt for a bogey five on the soaked 18th hole while the 102ndranked Altomare had a six in a playoff in driving rain and hail at the first extra hole.
Course workers removed pools of standing water from the 18th green as the players approached the putting surface after their third shots.
The par-four hole had played long all afternoon and was neartreacherous for the playoff.
‘‘I am from Sweden and I’m freezing,’’ said Nordqvist, who just two months ago was confined to bed for two weeks by a bout of mononucleosis.
The 30-year-old Nordqvist earned $547,500 for the win, her first major since the 2009 LPGA Championship.
Altomare got $340,000 for only her second career top-10 finish, three weeks after the 26-year-old secured a third-place tie at the Portland Classic.
Nordqvist and Altomare both shot 66 for nine-under totals of 204.
Nordqvist’s victory ensured 10 different major winners in the past two seasons.
Last year, Nordqvist lost a playoff for the US Women’s Open after a rules violation on the second extra hole, for touching sand with her club in a fairway bunker, was relayed to her on the next hole.
Brittany Lang of the United States won that major title.
Jutanugarn was seeking to follow her younger sister Ariya, the 2016 Women’s British Open winner, as the first siblings ever to each win a women’s major title.