Ariya ends season with a big splash
Thai wins last event in time for birthday party
NAPLES: Ariya Jutanugarn returned to form in time to give herself a big birthday present on Sunday — the CME Group Tour Championship title.
The Thai, who turns 22 on Thursday, closed with back-to-back birdies to win the LPGA Tour’s season-ending tournament and US$500,000 (approximately 16 million baht) in prize money.
American Lexi Thompson took the $1 million season bonus despite a lasthole heartbreak.
Ariya birdied four of the last six holes, sinking a 20-foot birdie putt on the 17th and a 23-footer at 18, to shoot a five-under-par 67 in the final round and finish 15-under 273 overall at Tiburon Golf Club in Florida.
“This week, to be honest, I had no expectations at all,” said Ariya, who won last year’s $1 million bonus.
“I really wasn’t thinking about the outcome any more at all. I really thought only about the things I could control. And I have so much fun this week.”
Despite the fact her caddie told her not to, she sneaked a peek at the leaderboard on the final hole.
“I knew I had to make the putt, but I didn’t expect to make it,” Ariya said.
But she did, ending the year on an upswing after “a bad last few months in which I learned a lot”.
The 2016 LPGA player of the year added: “I was so nervous my hands were shaking and I started crying after I made it.”
It was Ariya’s second win of the season and seventh overall.
Ariya, the 2016 Women’s British Open champion, had been in a slump since winning the Manulife Classic in June which pushed her to the top of the world rankings.
She has since missed the cut at four consecutive majors and dropped to No.9 in the world. With Sunday’s success, she moved up to fifth.
Thompson and compatriot Jessica Korda shared second in Naples, just one stroke adrift, with Sweden’s Pernilla Lindberg and South Korean Ji Eun-Hee tied for fourth a shot further back.
It appeared Thompson, who played in two groups ahead of overnight jointleader Ariya, would take the title, needing only a two-foot tap-in par putt at 18 to reach the clubhouse on what proved to be the winning score.
But she missed, the ball lipping off the right edge, as she settled for the Race to the CME Globe season bonus prize.
“I guess it was just adrenaline with missing that putt because I didn’t look at a leaderboard all day,” Thompson said.
Ariya, meanwhile, opened with her lone bogey, bounced back with birdies at four and six and then birdied 13 and 14 before her finishing heroics.
She joined the leaders on the penultimate green, then topped her feat with only the fourth birdie of the day at the last for the title.
She plans to take the $500,000 winner’s check to Asia and celebrate her 22nd birthday on Thursday.
“I’m going back to Thailand to spend my birthday with my family,” said Ariya, who is scheduled to arrive in Bangkok tomorrow.
Her older sister Moriya finished tied for 30th on 283, while Pornanong Phatlum, the other Thai in the tournament, was joint 16th on 279.
Thompson also captured the Vare Trophy for the LPGA’s lowest scoring average for the season.
The LPGA player of the year award was shared for the first time, with South Koreans Park Sung-Hyun — also the LPGA rookie of the year — and Ryu So-Yeon being named co-winners.
US Women’s Open champion Park matched Nancy Lopez as the only players to win top player and rookie awards in the same year.