Kim bags Classic title, Ariya overtakes Ko
BEIJING: Kim In-Kyung won the Reignwood LPGA Classic yesterday for her first victory in six years as Thailand’s secondranked Ariya Jutanugarn took the lead from the idle Lydia Ko in the player of the year points race.
Kim had an eagle and a birdie on the two late par 5s to lead a South Korean sweep of the top three places at the tournament.
The 28-year-old Kim closed with a seven-under 66 at Reignwood Pine Valley, rebounding from a bogey on the par-5 ninth to win her fourth LPGA Tour title and first since the 2010 Lorena Ochoa Invitational in Mexico.
Ariya shot a 65 to tie for sixth at 18 under. The tour leader with five victories, Ariya had a double bogey on the par-5 sixth, then birdied eight of the last 12 holes — with birdies on the final four par 5s.
The Thai player also had a double bogey on a par 5 in a second-round 75 that took her out of contention.
Kim finished at 24-under 268, a stroke ahead of third-round leader Hur MiJung and 2014 winner Lee Mi-Rim in the first tournament in the tour’s six-event Asian Swing.
Kim made up for the bogey on No.9 — she went for the green in two and ended up short in the water — by playing the other four par-5s in five under. She eagled the 16th and birdied Nos.6, 12 and 18. She also birdied the par-4 15th in her late run.
Hur birdied five of the last six for a 70 in the round delayed 1½ hours at the start because of rain and lightning. She opened bogey-bogey-birdie-bogey and parred the next eight.
Lee had a 68. She had a double bogey on No.9, then played the back nine in six-under 31 with an eagle on the 12th and five birdies.
China’s Feng Shanshan, the 2013 winner in the event that wasn’t played last year, shot a 69 to tie for fourth with Canada’s Brooke Henderson (71) at 21 under.
The 19-year-old Henderson, a twotime winner this year, plans to play all six weeks in Asia, a journey that will take her to Taiwan and South Korea the next two weeks, back to China for the Blue Bay LPGA at Hainan Island, and then to Malaysia and Japan.