Ariya, 20, had squandered several golden opportunities before breaking through for her maiden LPGA success in May and followed up by winning her next two starts before adding the Women’s British Open last month. Jutanugarn, who is recovering from a knee injury that forced her to withdraw during the third round of the 2016 Summer Olympics, would like a bit more space to bomb away and figured she’d be better off without her big stick this week, is turning Priddis Greens into her own personal playground.
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Lydia Ko’s work off the tee was good but her short iron play and putting let her down during the final round of the Canadian Pacific Open.
Jutanugarn’s fifth victory in just her second year on the tour is the most by any LPGA player this season.
South Korea’s Sei Young Kim and Northern Ireland’s Stephanie Meadow were 12 under.
Jutanugarn, a 20-year-old Bangkok native, is now No. 2 in the women’s world golf rankings behind New Zealand’s Lydia Ko and just ahead of Brooke Henderson of Smiths Falls, Ont.
“After I won my first tournament, I feel like I reached my goal”, Jutanugarn said Sunday after her latest trophy presentation.
Southeast Asian players dominated the top of the leaderboard Sunday, taking the first three spots.
The 35-year-old Sharp went 16-under for a career-best fourth in Priddis.
Three successive birdies from the 15th maintained Meadow’s hopes of a high finish as recent British Open victor Jutanugarn gave the other contenders hope by bogeying two of her final three holes.
With two straight tournament stops in Canada upon their return, it’s been a unique 2016 for both women.
Canadian star Brooke Henderson shot a 69 to tie for 14th at 11 under.
She closed with a 3-under 69 on Sunday thanks to a walk-off birdie putt. Leblanc, 27, was not as happy after missing a short par putt for a bogey there. “I know I had two bogeys in the last three holes, but I still shot 5 under, so I feel good”. “I really want to make the cut, ‘” Jutanugarn said. “My goal was top 10”.
They’ll morph from the home-country favourites to the home-province favourites.
“I had a pretty solid week”, Henderson said. “The only thing I want to be is I really want to be happy on the course”. A member of Canada’s Golf Hall of Fame, Coe-Jones of Lake Cowichan, B.C., underwent surgery on her right leg in March to remove cancerous tumours.
Started off kind of ugly, Sharp said. “Hopefully I’ll get a little bit deeper under par tomorrow and see what happens”.
“I felt way better today, and I think feeling the energy from my massive crowds has definitely really helped that”, the 18-year-old Henderson said. Im not really care like who the leader is, like what I say yesterday.
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Ko appeared to be building a head of steam with four birdies in a row between the ninth and 12th holes to move to nine-under.
