Hyo Joo Kim carded 69 in the final round of The Ascendant LPGA Benefiting Volunteers of America to secure victory with Solheim Cup stars Lexi Thompson, Cheyenne Knight and Leona Maguire all finishing inside the top 10
Sunday 8 October 2023 23:09, UK
South Korea's Hyo Joo Kim secured her sixth LPGA Tour title with a wire-to-wire victory at The Ascendant LPGA at the Colony, Texas on Sunday.
Kim took a five-shot lead into the final round and a two-under-par 69 was enough to secure the title by four shots over Bianca Pagdanganan of the Philippines and Atthaya Thitikul of Thailand at 13 under.
Both Pagdanganan and Thitikul carded six-under-par 65s to share second place, with Sarah Kemp of Australia in fourth at eight under following a 69.
American Solheim Cup stars Lexi Thompson (-7) - who will play on the PGA Tour next week after being given an exemption into the Shriners Children's Open in Las Vegas - and Cheyenne Knight (-6) finished fifth and sixth respectively.
Ireland's Leona Maguire (-5) recovered from a disappointing Saturday to card a 68 on Sunday and finish in a tie for seventh.
But Kim, ranked No 7 in the world this week, was in unstoppable form and went wire-to-wire to win on the LPGA Tour for the first time since April 2022.
She found herself even for the round after 11 holes, with two birdies and two bogeys to show for it and made an important birdie at the par-four 14th and added to the margin with a final birdie at the par-five 17th.
Thitikul birdied five of her final seven holes to charge up the leaderboard. It was her 10th top-10 finish of the season after bursting onto the scene in 2022 with a pair of victories.
"Golfers have ups and downs, and ups [being] really up and down [being] really down," Thitikul said. "I'm so grateful that it's happened this year.
"I'm just 20 and it's just my second year on tour. I can learn a lot from this year. Mentally-wise I think I learn a lot from this year."
Pagdanganan also got red-hot late on, making six of her seven birdies on the back nine to come in in six-under 30.
"Short game is pretty much everything in this sport, so I've been just putting in more time with chipping, putting, everything around the green," Pagdanganan said.
"I really can say that the last two weeks that's kind of what saved my game. I wouldn't say my ball striking was A+. It was good enough, but I still missed a couple greens. My short game has been my saving grace I would say for the last two weeks."
The next event on the LPGA Tour schedule is the Buick LPGA Shangai from Qizhong Garden Golf Club in China from October 12-15.
Golf fans can enjoy live golf on Sky Sports across next weekend with the Shriners Children's Open on the PGA Tour and the Open de Espana on the DP World Tour.
