Two of the best Korean players in the world, Jin Hee Im and Somi Lee, won their first LPGA Tour event in a thriller at the Dow Championship.
The fifth edition of the Dow Championship, the only partners event on the LPGA Tour schedule, was the best yet, going to a playoff for the first time. Lee and Im made a clutch birdie on the par 3 18th, the first extra hole, to win the title.
Lee and Im came into Sunday’s final round in the final group and trailing Sarah Schmelzel and Albane Valenzuela by one stroke. A strong front nine, led mostly by Im, who shot -5 on her own ball, put them in good position early with plenty of time in their round.
The superstar team of Megan Khang and Lexi Thompson set the apparent mark to beat a few holes ahead of them, sitting in the clubhouse at -20 after shooting a 60 in the final round, which was four ball. With Im and Lee hitting some struggles on the back nine, it wasn’t clear if that mark would be beat.
Big time birdies put Lee and Im in control on 18, but two missed putts from makable range sent it the relatively inexperienced team to an intimidating playoff against two of the most popular players in the world.
Thompson went first in the playoff and hit a beauty of an iron shot into the green, well within make range. Somi Lee, who had been struggling a bit down the stretch stepped up and nearly matched her, hitting a clutch shot in to give her partner a chance.
Im went first, burying hers right into the middle of the hole, while Khang hit a poor putt, especially under the circumstances, to hand Lee and Im the win.
Despite being Lee being 26 and Im being 27, this is each player’s second season on Tour. Both had a lot of success on the KLPGA, combining for 11 wins and have been fixtures on leaderboards in their brief careers.
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