Yoo wins on 2nd chance
Scores first major after Kim’s miss forces playoff
Sun Young Yoo won the Kraft Nabisco Championship with an 18-foot birdie putt on the first playoff hole Sunday, earning her first major title after I.K. Kim missed a 1-foot putt on the final hole of regulation.
Yoo won the LPGA tour’s first major of the season with steady play down the stretch. She got to make the traditional leap into Poppie’s Pond at Mission Hills Country Club in Rancho Mirage, Calif., only after Kim’s mind-boggling miss on the same green minutes earlier.
“She’s a great putter,” Yoo said about Kim. “She usually doesn’t miss that putt. But in sports, you never know what’s going to happen.”
Yoo, who earned her second career LPGA victory, and Kim finished at 9 under, but Kim could have wrapped up her first major title with the tap-in par putt. The ball toured the lip of the cup before coming out on the same side it entered. The gallery gasped, and Kim raised a hand to her mouth in disbelief.
“I played straight, and it actually just broke to the right,” said Kim, a 23-year-old South Korean who lives in the Los Angeles area. “So it was unfortunate on 18, but I feel good about my game. It’s getting better.”
Kim had been the most consistent contender amid those momentum swings, going bogey-free through 17 holes — until she made a mistake reminiscent of Scott Hoch’s missed 2-foot putt that would have won the 1989 Masters and Doug Sanders’ miss on a 3-footer that would have won the 1970 British Open.
“On the playoff hole, it’s just hard to kind of focus on what’s going on right now,” Kim said. “Because I was still a little bit bummed (about) what happened on 18, honestly.”
Yoo, who joined Grace Park as the only South Korean winners in tournament history, seemed a bit reluctant to celebrate after hugging Kim, but she joined her caddie for the leap into Poppie’s Pond. She surpassed $3 million in career earnings with her $300,000 share of the $2 million purse.
“It’s huge. I didn’t think about winning today,” said Yoo, who began the final round in a five-way tie for fourth. “I didn’t want to let myself down, but I think I did better than what I was expecting.”
Top-ranked Yani Tseng finished third at 8 under with a disappointing final-round 73. Even after blowing a Sunday lead in the Kraft Nabisco for the second consecutive year, the Taiwanese star had a chance to join the playoff on the 18th but pushed a long birdie putt wide by an inch.
Defending champion Stacy Lewis closed strong with a 66 to finish in a four-way tie for fourth with Amy Yang and Karin Sjodin — who shot a 74 after entering the final round even with Tseng and leading at the turn — and another of the five leaders Sunday, Hee Kyung Seo, who had a three-stroke lead on the back nine before bogeying her final four holes.