|
Steadying herself after a double-bogey to open the round, 21-year-old Korean Hwang Ye Nah has claimed her first TLPGA Tour title in the 2015 ICTSI Ladies Open, edging out local amateur Princess Superal by just one shot. The $75,000 event at the Southlinks Golf Club in Manila, Philippines is co-sanctioned by the TLPGA Tour and the LPGT (Ladies Philippine Golf Tour). With this win, Hwang receives a $15,000 champion prize.
Superal missed a birdie putt on the last hole that could have force a play-off, dashing her hope of cross-season back-to-back LPGT victories after winning the season-ending event on the 2014 calendar, the Sherwood Ladies Championship.
It was a tense tussle all the way on Friday between Hwang and Superal. Starting from 10-under-par, Hwang’s lead of 2 strokes disappeared imminently when she double-bogeyed the first hole as Superal made birdie. Each went onto card a bogey and not until on par-4 Hole 6, Hwang seized her chance to level.
Both at 8-under stepping onto the ninth tee, Hwang left with a bogey while Superal hit her drive onto the left side of the fairway and the rough was so thick she had to take a one-stroke penalty. Superal then landed her third shot into a fairway bunker and was trapped into another with her fourth shot, before finally finding the green. A first putt lipping out of the cup resulted in a triple-bogey and now she was two shots back of Hwang.
Superal settled herself and tried to erase the mistake with a birdie on the 10th, but an uninspired finish of seven straight pars left her eventually one shot short. Her final score of 6-under-par 210 still wins her the low amateur title.
Taiwan’s TLPGA No.9 Yeh Hsin-Ning (葉欣寧) notched the low-round honor with a 68 final-round, rallying in tough windy conditions to catch 2014 TLPGA Party Golfers' Open champion, Thailand’s Kanphanitnan Muangkhumsakul for third at 215.
“I would like to thank my caddie Ni. It’s always great to have someone who understands you on the course,” said Yeh. “I think I was a lot more solid with the woods and irons than the previous two days, and I was really trying to have fun on this final day. The result came out great. I set myself a goal to at least make it top-5 and I did it.” Yeh was at T9 after Day 2.
First-round co-leader Mia Piccio finished solo fifth at 218 while 2014 LPGT Money Winner Cyna Rodriguez used a 75 to finish solo sixth at 220.
Taiwanese Chen I-Wen (陳依妏) and Liang Yi-Lin (梁宜羚) settled for a tie for 14th at 226, and Pan Yen-Ling (潘彥伶) finished another shot back at 227 for T16. |
