Chanettee Wannasaen came out on top after a Sunday back nine shootout with Haeran Ryu to claim her second LPGA victory having turned pro last year. Stephanie Meadow had a steady final round to finish her week on one-under and tied for 53rd spot.
Defending champion Linn Grant went down fighting with seven birdies of her own on her final round but dropped shots including a double on her last meant she would come up short on defending her title.
“I mean, overall, I think I played pretty solid. Even yesterday when I felt like it wasn’t my day, I kept it together and I had a round under par,” said Grant after relinquishing her title. “Today, I mean, wasn’t a lot of fun the first nine, but managed to pull myself together on the back, made a lot of birdies. And then obviously unfortunately on 18, I mean, it’s golf. I said all week I wanted to play aggressive and have fun out there, yeah.”
Soo Bin Jun made waves on the final day with an ace at the second with a fine six iron into the par-3.
“Started bad on the first hole but I was trying to stay focused again on the second hole. I think that help me made the hole-in-one,” said a delighted Korean after her round. “I have my 6-iron in my handled and I was kind of — I was trying to draw it in. It went perfectly and landed perfectly and went in.”
Meadow traded blows with Highland Meadows GC on her front nine of round four, quickly recovering a dropped shot on the par-4 5th with birdie on the next hole. She gained one more back on the par-3 8th only to hand straight back to turn on even-par for her round. A blemish free back nine followed and she managed to nab two more birdies on her way home, on the 14th and again on her final hole of the week, the par-5 18th. A decent final day for Meadow as she now turns her attention to Paris and Team Ireland for the Olympics with Leona Maguire.
Wannasaen and Ryu meanwhile were tussling all the way home on the back nine. Both had gone clean on their front-nine with Ryu turning on one-under and Wannasaen three-under. The Korean staged a charge on her return leg to challenge the Thai champion all the way to the final hole. Six birdies on the way home for the Korean kept the pressure on the lead with only a single dropped shot on Sunday. This would prove pivotal with the leader having two bogeys of her own on the 10th and again on the par-4 13th. A finish of birdie-birdie was enough for the Thai to secure her second Tour victor in dramatic fashion by one stroke.
The third member of the final three-ball of the week Ssu-Chia Cheng too had a fine third round to secure a tie for third with Grant on-14 after their matching four under rounds of 68. The Chinese duo of Mary Liu and Xiyu Lin round off the top five this week with the pair tying for fifth spot on 12-under-par. Lin will head to Paris next week with Ruoning Yin to represent their country in the ’24 Summer Games.
With the Olympics kicking off next week, the LPGA rolls on with the CPKC Women’s Open taking place at Earl Grey GC in Calgary Canada before Wannasaen defends her maiden victory the week after at the Portland Classic in Oregon from August 1st through 4th.
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