Kim ends long wait for first major win
NEWTOWN SQUARE, PA.— Sei Young Kim lined up for the putt on the 18th hole that would seal her first LPGA major championship and somehow missed by inches. One member of the gallery — in this instance, made up of roughly 75 officials, photographers and course stragglers — even said “she made it.” Not quite. The 27-year-old South Korean laughed off the rare misstep, tapped in the winner and shed the unwelcome label of winningest golfer on the tour without a major. Kim raised her arms Rocky style, hugged her caddy and, at last, was a major champion.
Kim chewed up Aronimink Golf Club in record style, shooting a 7-under 63 on Sunday to win the KPMG Women’s PGA Championship. She was five strokes better than runner-up Inbee Park, never seriously challenged on the arduous course in suburban Philadelphia.
“I’m actually really hiding my tears at the moment,” she said, standing next to the trophy.
Canadian Brooke Henderson, the 2016 champion who was just two shots back heading into Sunday, played in the final group with Kim but faded to sixth place — 11 strokes off the pace after a final-round 72.
Kim’s dominance was in plain sight. She finished at 14-under 266. Her final-round 63 tied a tournament record, and her 266 set the championship scoring record.
Kim, a 2016 Olympian and 11time LPGA winner, was runner-up at the 2015 Women’s
PGA Championship and tied for second at the Evian Championship in 2018. She had held the 54-hole lead at a major once, at the 2015 ANA Inspiration, where she finished in a tie for fourth.
She clinched the championship with a round to remember at Aronimink.
Kim’s fifth birdie of the day at the par-3 14th gave her a fourshot lead over Park and put her at 12 under for the championship.
She earned $645,000 for the victory and has at least one win in every LPGA Tour season since 2015.