Leona Maguire and Stephanie Meadow couldn’t make the moves they wanted in the final round of the BMW Ladies Championship in the Republic of Korea as they both ended a disappointing week on a sour note.
Maguire was the model of consistency on day four, picking up just one birdie and one bogey alongside 16 pars in a closing level-par 72 to end the week one-under-par in a tie for 51st.
Starting at the 10th, the Cavan woman birdied the par-five 15th to get off the mark, but that would be the only one she would notch at Oak Valley Country Club, with a bogey at the par-five second her only other scoring hole.
It was an even tougher day for Meadow, who finished her tournament with back-to-back rounds of 76 over the weekend to slump to 72nd at nine-over-par.
On Sunday it was a triple-bogey seven at the par-four 16th that did the damage, the Galgorm touring pro having started at the 10th and birdied the par-five 15th before struggling just one hole later.
Three bogeys and one further birdie on her inward nine led to another four-over round and sees her drop to 81st in the Race to CME Globe rankings with just two regular season events remaining.
Meanwhile, the win went to New Zealand’s Lydia Ko, who picked up her 18th LPGA Tour victory and her third in her last 18 months after a stunning seven-under 65 in her final round gave her a comfortable four-shot success at Oak Valley.
The 25-year-old, who also shot a 66 on Saturday, started the day one shot behind Thailand’s Atthaya Thitikul but a near flawless final round that contained eight birdies and one bogey catapulted her to the top of the leaderboard at 21-under-par.
Behind her, the rest of the field couldn’t keep up, Thitikul struggling to a 74 to fall back to sixth, with America’s Andrea Lee signing for a closing 69 to finish second at 17-under.
Ko, who was born in Korea, commented: “It’s great to be back in the winner’s circle and it means a lot to win in Korea – the place that I’m born. It makes it very special.
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