In the end it was just meant to be Mirim Lee's day, no matter how well Brooke Henderson and Nelly Korda played. The South Korean ranked #93 in the world played in the pack most of Sunday while Brooke and Nelly battled for the lead as if they were in match play right from the first tee.
Lee had chipped in on her 6th hole for birdie which turned out to be a preview of things to come. With Korda at -15 and Brooke -14, Lee came to the 16th needing to get up and down for par from 50 feet. Her chip rolled up and down towards the pin, hit it and fell in for a surprise birdie and -14.
Still her chance seemed gone with a bogey at the par 3 17th, until inexplicably after a drop from the controversial "wall" replacing the usual stand behind the 18th, she chipped her 3rd again, down grain, down the green from 60 feet, speeding by the pin until it hit it dead on, hopped up in the air briefly before dropping in for an eagle 3 and a share of the lead with a 67 and -15.
Unaware of this drama with no crowd noise, Brooke came to the 18th and with a great chip after a drop from the wall, she tapped in for birdie 4, 69 and -15, leaving Nelly to hole a tough 12 footer for par, 69 and -15 and now they were joined by the surprised Korean in a playoff.
In the playoff down the par 5 18th, Brooke had a 5 footer for birdie, but missed it low as she had several times during her round, for 5, Korda who had to lay up made 5 and Lee holed a good 6 footer to snatch the title, her first major to her utter surprise.
She was so shocked she couldn't stop crying when Jerry Foltz attempted a post round interview via interpreter, he finally gave up and off she went tip toeing into Poppy's Pond, and into the books with the major either Brooke or Nelly seemed destined to win.
Brooke was her usual upbeat self after the round. " I think I played really well, my ball striking was good, I gave myself a lot of birdie opportunities all day, I just didn't make as many as I would have liked" Her numbers bear that out as she used 30 putts as opposed to 26 in her Saturday 65.
The tour is supposed to be playing this week in the Cambia Portland Classic, however with forest fires raging in Oregon it may be postponed or cancelled. Brooke has won it twice.
| 1 | 70 - 65 - 71 - 67 | 273 | -15 | $465,000 | ||
| T2 | 68 - 71 - 65 - 69 | 273 | -15 | $245,480 | ||
| T2 | 66 - 67 - 71 - 69 | 273 | -15 | $245,480 | ||
| 4 | 70 - 67 - 69 - 69 | 275 | -13 | $159,679 | ||
| 5 | 70 - 71 - 67 - 68 | 276 | -12 | $128,524 | ||
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