Red-hot Ariya
Ariya Jutanugarn wins in Canada for her fifth LPGA title of the season.
PRIDDIS: Five months after giving away a major championship with a late meltdown, Ariya Jutanugarn ran away with the Canadian Women’s Open at chilly Priddis Greens for her fifth LPGA victory in 10 events.
Ariya made a 12-birdie putt on the final hole for a six-under 66 and a four-stroke victory over South Korea’s Kim Sei-Young.
The 20-year-old Thai player won nine days after withdrawing from the Rio Olympics because of a left knee injury, a problem that almost forced her to skip the event.
“I feel like I’m going to withdraw this week because my knee hurt so bad last week,” Ariya said. “But when I got here on Monday and Tuesday, it’s getting a lot better, and first round it’s fine.”
Bundled up in a winter jacket between shots with the temperature in the lows 50Fs on the overcast afternoon, world No.2 Ariya broke a tie with top-ranked Lydia Ko for the LPGA Tour victory lead.
Ariya focused on having fun — and did. Blasting two-iron and three-wood off the driving holes on the tree-lined course, she birdied the par-five seventh and par-three eighth to get to 19 under, then pulled away with birdies on the par-five 12th, par-four 14th, par-three 15th and par-five 18th.
“I felt like I wanted to have fun and be happy,” Ariya said. “No matter what’s going to happen, I can handle it.”
That wasn’t the case all that long ago. In April at the ANA Inspiration in the California desert, Ariya — at the time, best known for blowing a two-stroke lead with a closing triple bogey at age 17 in the 2013 LPGA Thailand — bogeyed the final three holes to hand the major title to Ko.
Ariya rebounded in a big way, breaking through in May with three straight victories in Alabama, Virginia and Michigan. She won the Women’s British Open last month in the event before the Olympics, and made it two in a row on the tour Sunday in the foothills of the Canadian Rockies.
“After I won my first tournament, I feel like I reached my goal, and after that I feel like I don’t care like what my ranking going to be. I don’t care if I’m going to win the tournament or not. The only thing I want to be is I really want to be happy on the course,” she said.
She has five victories in 10 events a year after missing 10 straight cuts.
“I just feel like at that time, the only focus, ‘I’m scared to miss the cut. I really want to make the cut,’” Ariya said. “But after that I feel like I changed my focus, so right now my focus is like what’s going to be good, like what I have to do to be good, so I’m thinking about like what is under my control, not thinking about like anything else.”
Ariya matched the tournament record for relation of 23 under set by Ryu So-Yeon two years ago at London Hunt in Ontario and the mark for strokes of 265 set by Ryu and also accomplished by Ko in 2013 at par-70 Royal Mayfair in Edmonton.
Kim, a two-time winner this year, closed with a 65. South Korea’s Chun In-Gee, the 2015 US Women’s Open champion, was third at 18 under after a 69. Canada’s Alena Sharp had the best result of her LPGA Tour career, birdieing the final two holes for a 67 to finish fourth at 16 under.
“I can’t really describe how great it feels to play this well in Canada,” said Sharp.
Australia’s Karrie Webb (64) and Sweden’s Anna Nordqvist (68) tied for fifth at 15 under.
Webb won the 1999 du Maurier Classic, the then-major championship that folded because of Canada’s restrictions on tobacco promotions, at Priddis Greens.
“On the back nine, everything went in,” Webb said.
Three-time champion Ko had a 69 to tie for seventh at 13 under.
“I was a little far away going into today,” said the 19-year-old New Zealander who has won four times year. “But it’s been a great week.”
She won three of the previous four years, the first two as an amateur.
Canadian star Brooke Henderson shot a 69 to tie for 14th at 11 under. The 18-yearold from Ontario is already thinking about next year’s tournament at Ottawa Hunt.
“We recently became members at the Ottawa Hunt, so it’s my home golf course,” Henderson said. “It’s only 45 minutes from my house.”
She also will play in her home province this week in the Manulife LPGA Classic in Cambridge.
UEHARA’S ACES
Japan’s Ayako Uehara had a hole-in-one for the second straight day.
After acing the 11th with a hybrid from 158 yards on Saturday, she holed a 7-iron from 164 yards on the eighth.
She’s the fourth player in LPGA Tour history with two aces in a week. She tied for 10th at 12 under after a 67.