All-time Major record for Chun at Evian event

EVIAN-LES-BAINS, France: In Gee Chun clinched the Evian Championship in recordbreaking style yesterday, winning by four shots to secure her second Major with the lowest ever 72-hole score in a major.

The 22-year-old South Korean sank a difficult 10-feet putt to finish on 21-under, breaking the record for men and women of 20-under co-held by Henrik Stenson and Jason Day. She bettered the women’s record by two.

She led from start to finish, although she did share the first-round lead with Sung Hyun Park – who finished tied for second with So Yeon Ryu in a dominant tournament for South Koreans.

Chun finished the day with a two-under 69, the most modest of her four rounds. Not that it took anything away from her achievement.

“I just cannot believe I won the Evian Championship and made 21-under-par,” Chun said as she clutched the trophy, her voice breaking with emotion. “I’m not dreaming right?”

Chun missed the cut here at Evian Resort last year and tied for 65th in 2014.

In four days of intensely accurate driving and clinical putting, she was near-faultless. Her only significant blemish was a double bogey on the ninth hole in the third round.

Chun, who won the US Women’s Open last year, is only the second player in LPGA history to have her first two LPGA wins come at Majors. The other was countrywoman Se Ri Pak in 1998.

It looked like she might miss out on a new Major record when she sent her tee shot into the left rough on the 18th. She chose the safe option and used a wedge to chop her way onto the fairway, about 95 yards from the pin.

Then, she glided her ball over the water to give herself a decent shot at history.

After making her record-breaking putt, she raised both arms in the air and smiled, as defending champion Lydia Ko poured Champagne over her.

Shanshan Feng, China’s only Major winner, was six shots back in fourth place, with South Korean Sei Young Kim posting an impressive 65 to move up to fifth.

• Meanwhile, Francesco Molinari held his nerve in a final-day battle with Danny Willett to claim a historic victory at the Italian Open.

The home hero recorded a closing 65 yesterday to get to 22-under and beat Willett by one shot, becoming the first Italian to win his national Open twice since the event became part of the European Tour in 1972.

The 2006 champion also became the first Italian to win any European Tour event twice as he claimed his fourth win and his first since the 2012 Reale Seguros Open de España in 2012.

Followed by an enormous gallery, he tuned in 31 and held a four-shot lead with six holes to play but Masters Tournament winner Willett is made of stern stuff and went birdie-eagle on the 13th and 14th to cut the gap to one.

There were nervy moments from both players in the closing stretch but Molinari held on. – AP; additonal reporting by europeantour.com