It wasn’t the finish she wanted, but Ahleigh Buhai’s closing four-over-par 76 on Sunday still saw her finish inside the top 20 in the first women’s major championship of the year, the Chevron Championship at The Club at Carlton Woods in The Woodlands, Texas.
Buhai made two bogeys and a double-bogey as she finished the week on two-under-par in a share of 18th. That put her eight shots out of the play-off, which produced a first-time major winner in American Lilia Vu, who defeated fellow-American Angel Yin on the first extra hole after both players finished on 10-under. Vu made a birdie on the par-five 18th, while Yin made par.
Yin’s second shot in the play-off came up short and left and splashed into the pond guarding the par-five 18th hole. Vu, after a huge tee shot, hit her approach safely just over the green. She went with putter from off the green and came up well short, but she converted the birdie from about 10 feet for the victory.
“I knew on that last putt, all I had to do was just do my routine, read the putt how I usually do, and just hit this putt because I’ve hit that putt a million times,” Vu said. “And I knew I could make it.”
The 25-year-old Californian won for the second time on the LPGA Tour and took a celebratory leap into the pond, a tradition borrowed from this tournament’s former venue at Mission Hills in the California desert.
Nelly Korda finished third after her closing 71 left her one shot out of the play-off.
