ARDINA SHOOTS 1-UNDER; HALL RULES PORTLAND
England’s Georgia Hall won the tournament with a par at the second playoff hole, denying South African Ashleigh Buhai a first US LPGA title
Dottie Ardina closed with a one-under par 71 despite a final-hole bogey in the Cambia Portland Classic at the Columbia Edgewater in Portland, Oregon.
Rookie Bianca Pagdanganan, playing with Ardina in the same flight for the first time, dropped three shots in the last two holes for two-over par 74.
Ardina finished the 54-hole event on three-under 213 for joint 42nd while Pagdanganan ended up tied for 64th on even-par 216.
England’s Georgia Hall won the tournament with a par at the second playoff hole, denying South African Ashleigh Buhai a first US LPGA title.
Rookie Bianca Pagdanganan, playing with Ardina in the same flight for the first time, dropped three shots in the last two holes for two-over par 74.
Teeing off in the backnine, Ardina, 26, had three birdies in the first five holes but made consecutive bogeys on 15, 16 and 17 to make the turn at even par.
She birdied 4 and 6 before dropping a shot on the 54th hole to finish the tournament on three-under 213, good for a tie for 42nd.
The 22-year-old Pagdanganan made the turn at one-under par following a lone birdie on 15 and was still one-under through 16 after a birdie on 7. But she bogeyed 8 and gave up two shots on 9.
Buhai caught up with Hall on tournament-best 12-under after firing a 65. Hall wound up with 68.
At the second playoff hole, the par-four first that was the second-toughest on the course on the day, both players found the fairway.
Both saw their approach shots land in the rough behind the green and had to pitch on. Hall made her five-foot par putt to pile the pressure on Buhai, who missed her short-range effort.
England’s Hall, who added a second victory to the British Women’s Open title she claimed in 2018, had a one-stroke lead going into the 72nd hole, but bogeyed the last to fall into the playoff.
Buhai, a three-time winner on the Ladies European Tour, had stormed home, making four of her eight birdies in the last five holes in a seven-under-par 65.
That included a birdie at the 72nd hole to cap a seven-under par 65 that saw her in the clubhouse on 12-under 204.
Hall was 13-under heading to 18, thanks to two three-birdie bursts at the fifth, sixth and seventh and the 10th, 11th and 12th.
But she dropped a shot at the 72nd hole and the pair returned to the 18th tee to start the playoff.
Hall found the fairway at the first playoff hole, wthere Buhai was in the rough and put her shot out on the fringe.
Hall two-putted from about 12 feet and Buhai matched her par.
It was an emotional win for Hall, who said she didn’t realize where she stood at the final hole of regulation because the scoreboards that normally dot the course haven’t been put up with no fans in attendance because of the coronavirus pandemic.