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Amy Yang holds steady to win KPMG Women's PGA Championship

Scott Hanson, The Seattle Times on

Published in Golf

Yang entered the week with 21 top-finishes in the LPGA's five major tournament without a victory in one.

Twice, she has finished second alone at the U.S. Women's Open (2012 and 2015), part of seven top-10 finishes in that event.

Yang, who finished seventh when this event was played at Sahalee in 2016, started the day with a two-shot lead over Lauren Hartlage and Yamashita.

Hartlage had never finished better than 51st in a major, at the 2022 U.S. Open, and her best finish in an LPGA Tour event was a tie for sixth.

But despite the inexperience in pressure situations like the one she was in Sunday, she started off fast and was 2 under through five holes when she missed a five-foot birdie putt on the par-5 sixth hole that would have moved her into a tie for the lead with Yang.

Hartlage followed that with a double bogey on the seventh to fall three behind.

That left Miyu Yamashita the nearest pursuer, two shots back.

 

But not for long. Yamashita, who has won five times on the LPGA Tour of Japan and finished 12th last month in the U.S. Women's Open — her best finish in a major — became one of just many through four days to suffer a double bogey on the eighth hole.

That left Yamashita five behind, and Hartlage six behind after a second straight double bogey.

From that point on, it seemed she was battling for second place.

That battle was tight. When Yamashita bogeyed the 15th hole, it dropped her into a five-way tie at 3 under, seven strokes behind Yang.

It was also an excellent week for Vancouver, Wash., resident Caroline Inglis who finished tied for ninth, her best finish on the LPGA Tour, surpassing the tie for 10th she had in 2018.


(c)2024 The Seattle Times Distributed by Tribune Content Agency, LLC.

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