A Lim Kim wins Open debut with record-tying rally
HOUSTON — The Bermuda grass of south Texas was unlike anything A Lim Kim had ever seen. The U.S. Women’s Open, with its reputation as the toughest test, was a major she had never played.
What didn’t change in a frigid final round at Champions Golf Club was how to keep score. And when the 25-year-old from South Korea saw she was trailing and running out of holes, she started attacking flags.
Kim birdied her final three holes and tied the record for the largest comeback in a U.S. Women’s Open, rallying from five shots behind with the a 4-under 67 to win the biggest event in women’s golf.
“Still can’t really soak in that I’m the champion,” she said, minutes after being soaked in champagne on a day with temperatures in the 40s.
She won by one shot over Jin Young Ko, the top-ranked player in women’s golf, and Amy Olson, who played her heart out while coping with the grief of her father-in-law’s unexpected death Saturday night in South Dakota.
“I felt very weak and helpless the last couple days, and probably today on the golf course,” Olson said, fighting back tears after a 72. “I really believe the Lord just carried me through. It just makes you realize how much bigger life is than golf. But pleased with my finish overall and my performance.”
Kim’s spectacular finish made it tough for anyone to catch her. Two shots behind Olson, she hit 5-iron to 4 feet on the par-3 16th hole to get to 1-under. Then she hit
8-iron that rolled out to just inside 2 feet on the 17th for a tap-in birdie and a share of the lead. She capped it off with a pitching wedge to just inside 10 feet.
Behind her mask — fitting that the final major champion of this pandemic-disrupted year in golf was wearing one — the thrill was evident. So was the fist pump, a rare show of emotion for Kim.
“I’ve been eyeing the leaderboard throughout the round and I knew how many shots I was back,” she said through a translator. “That’s probably the reason why I tried to hit more aggressive, tried to attack the pins.”
Kim started the final round, delayed to Monday because of rain, in a tie for ninth. No one had ever started in a position that far back and won the U.S. Women’s Open. She became the seventh player to rally from five shots behind in the final round, and the first since Annika Sorenstam at The Broadmoor in
1995.
Olson held her own amid her heavy heart. Winless in seven years on the LPGA Tour, she had a two-shot lead on the back nine after 54-hole leader Hinako Shibuno faltered. But she couldn’t do anything about Kim’s late charge, and Olson fell back when her hybrid on the
par-3 16th bounded over the green and into thick, brown rough, leading to bogey.
She birdied the final hole for a 72 after Kim had already secured the title.