CINCINNATI — Minjee Lee misplaced a five-shot lead on the again 9 Sunday and recovered at simply the appropriate time, hitting wedge to 2 toes for birdie to beat Charley Hull on the second playoff gap within the Kroger Queen Metropolis Championship.
Lee, a two-time main champion, received for the primary time this yr after closing with a 1-under 71. It was her second playoff victory on the LPGA Tour, and she or he by no means imagined it could get to that time.
The 27-year-old Australian seized management early and led Hull by 5 pictures by 10 holes.
Six holes later, they had been tied.
Lee led by 4 on the par-5 twelfth, with Hull already having hit her second shot into the water. Lee determined to go for the inexperienced with a fairway steel, and she or he pulled it thus far left that it went out-of-bounds, resulting in a double bogey.
Hull dropped just one shot, chopping the deficit to a few pictures, after which she made three birdie putts within the 12- to 18-foot vary on the 14th, fifteenth and sixteenth holes to catch Lee.
Hull’s putt from 50 toes settled 2 toes away. Lee hit a wedge to 7 toes and holed the par putt to hitch Hull at 16-under 272 and pressure a playoff.
On the 18th within the playoff, Hull caught a flyer from the tough and it bounded over the inexperienced close to the grandstands. After a free drop, she used her putter to go up the slope to the inexperienced, and the ball stopped one flip from dropping.
Enjoying the 18th once more on the second additional time gap, Lee’s wedge landed nicely wanting the inexperienced and it ran up the ridge and settled 2 toes from the opening. Hull’s 15-foot birdie putt to increase the playoff missed to the left.
“Minjee performed nicely within the playoff,” Hull mentioned. “On the finish of the day, she was main going into the ultimate spherical and I achieved my greatest.”
Nobody else actually had an opportunity on the again 9. Ladies’s PGA champion Ruoning Yin a minimum of walked away with a comfort prize. She closed with a 67 to complete alone in third, and that needs to be sufficient for the 20-year-old from China to achieve No. 1 on this planet when the subsequent rating is official on Tuesday.
Yin joins Shanshan Feng as the one Chinese language participant to be No. 1. And to suppose she was simply exterior the highest 100 going into the yr.
“I received goosebumps,” mentioned Yin, who goes by “Ronni” on the LPGA. “I feel world No. 1 is the large step on the best way to chasing Shanshan. I received mind clean proper now. I don’t know what to say. Possibly I can’t say one thing till I lastly see my title as world No. 1.”
Lee received for the ninth time in her profession. She heads off for the LPGA Tour’s Asia swing earlier than returning for the ultimate home stretch in November.
