Ewing reels off 5 birdies for LPGA win
CINCINNATI – Ally Ewing ran off five straight on the back nine Sunday and closed with a 7-under 65 to hold off Xiyu Lin and win the Kroger Queen City Championship in the LPGA Tour’s return to Cincinnati.
Ewing now has three career wins, one in each of the last three years, though she came into this tournament without a top-10 finish all year.
The 29-year-old American played bogey-free on a rain-softened course and was pushed to the very end by Lin, who birdied two of her last three holes for a 65.
Maria Fassi of Mexico had a 71 and finished alone in third, her best LPGA finish.
Lin started the final round two shots behind and made up ground quickly with a pair of birdies. Ewing had to make a 7footer to match birdies with Lin on the par-5 12th and stay tied, and then the American kept going.
Ewing took the lead with an 8-foot birdie on the par-4 13th, made a 10-foot birdie on the next hole, hit wedge to 8 feet for birdie on the par-5 15th and then made her fifth in a row on the 16th after Lin also had birdied.
Lin made an 18-foot birdie on the 456yard closing hole into a breeze – only the 20th birdie all week on No. 18 – to create a little extra pressure. Ewing had come up short of the green and elected to use putter through about 5 feet of wet fairway grass.
She gave it a good pop and the putt rolled out to 3 feet left of the hole. After Lin made her birdie, Ewing calmly rapped in the par to finish at 22-under 266.
The victory came at a good time for Ewing, who last month decided to shorten her putting stroke in an effort to find something.
“The key for me is knowing it’s in there,” Ewing said after getting soaked by sparkling wine on the 18th green. “The change I made a couple of weeks before Canada … this week I saw putts go in. And once I saw them go in, I had confidence.”
One of them was for par. Ewing started with eight pars as Lin got off to a good start, and Ewing had to make a 6-foot par
putt on No. 7 to avoid falling behind.
“I was just a 6-footer,” she said, “but I saw a 6-footer go in.”
Lin fell two shots behind when she failed to birdie the par-5 15th, though she gave herself good chances and converted two of them.
The 26-year-old from China, who goes by “Janet,” is still looking for her first win.
“I did whatever I can do,” Lin said. “I had one of the best rounds I played all year. I came out second, which is a little said. But Ally played so well. Congrats to her.”
Ewing has reached the CME Group Tour Championship for the top 60 players every year since 2017, and this year was looking bleak without a top 10. She was at No. 70 in the Race to CME Globe, and the victory takes her to No. 30 and assures her spot in Naples, Florida, in the season finale in November.
BMW PGA Championship
VIRGINIA WATER, England – Shane Lowry tapped in for birdie at the 18th hole and then had to wait and see if Rory Mcilroy could produce something special to force a playoff at Wentworth.
Mcilroy gave himself a chance and the crowd cheered as his long eagle putt on the final hole crept slowly toward the cup, only to stop less than an inch short.
Mcilroy crouched down, staring at the ball in disbelief, while Lowry hugged his caddie in the scorer’s tent to celebrate a one-shot victory at the BMW PGA Championship on Sunday.
It was Lowry’s first win since the British Open at 2019 and came after a bogeyfree performance over three days at Wentworth.
It was also, according to the 35-yearold Irishman, a win for all the golfers who – like him – have rejected the lucrative offers from Saudi Arabia-backed breakaway series LIV Golf. Lowry and Mcilroy were both outspoken this week in criticizing the fact that a contingent of LIV golfers had been allowed to play at Wentworth. “I wanted to go out and win this tournament for myself, first and foremost, but I think for this tour and everyone that has stayed loyal to this tour,” Lowry said. “I really feel like this is one for the good guys.”
Mcilroy and Jon Rahm were tied for second, one shot back. Talor Gooch, who plays on the LIV circuit, was another shot back in fourth place.
It was Lowry’s first win since the British Open at 2019 and came after a bogeyfree performance over three days at Wentworth.
The tournament was reduced to 54 holes with no play on Friday after the death of Queen Elizabeth II on Thursday.
Lowry finished with a 7-under 65 for a 17-under total of 199.
“I said to my coach this morning, ‘I need to just allow myself to play golf today,’” Lowry said. “I’m playing the best golf of my life, I need to just allow myself to do that. And I did that.”
Rahm surged up the leaderboard with a 62, rolling in an eagle putt on the 18th to take a two-shot clubhouse lead at 16 under. He then had to wait more than two hours to see if it would be good enough for the win, although on a low-scoring day at Wentworth it never looked likely to be.
A superb approach shot from Lowry on the 18th made sure of that.
Lowry hit an iron from 242 yards onto the center of the green – a shot good enough to earn an immediate fist bump from his caddie – and then rolled an eagle putt to within a few inches of the hole, leaving himself a tap-in birdie for the lead.
Mcilroy, playing in the pairing behind Lowry, also had a 14-foot birdie putt on the 17th break just to the right of the hole. When Lowry then birdied the last hole, Mcilroy knew he needed to eagle the par-5 18th – something he has never managed at Wentworth.
He came agonizingly close.
“I thought three feet out even that that putt was going in the hole,” said Mcilroy, who won his third Fedex Cup title last month.