An exciting finish to this year's Swinging Skirts LPGA Taiwan Championship presented by CTBC, Eun-Hee Ji held off a charging Lydia Ko to pick up her first win of the 2017 season.
It has been 8 years, 3 months and 10 days for the 31-year-old from the Republic of Korea since her last victory at the 2009 U.S. Women’s Open. She calmly tapped in a 3-foot par putt on No. 18 to capture her third career LPGA Tour win by six-strokes over Ko at the Miramar Resort and Country Club.
“I'm so happy and excited because I haven't won for the past eight years,” said Ji. “So I was waiting for this moment for so long, so I'm super happy right now.”
Ji took command early in the week with an opening round 6-under par, 66 to take the outright lead in round one. She posted a 71 on day two and cruised on the weekend, posting 69 on Saturday to take a six-stroke lead entering the final round and closing with a 7-under-par, 65 to win by six-strokes ahead of Lydia Ko.
She had an impressive four days carding 20 birdies and three bogeys to finish at 17-under 271 for the tournament.
“It is a nice day for playing golf today, and I have a really good group with Lydia and Jenny, so I was more relaxed with them and enjoyed playing with them,” said Ji. “Yeah, it's been great.”
New Zealand’s Lydia Ko finished runner-up after posting a bogey-free 7-under-par 65 on Sunday.
“I'll still take a birdie on the finishing hole,” said Ko. “When I was on 17 tee I said I want to finish with two birdies, and I was able to do that. I played really solid today. I had a few pars; I guess 12-footers for par on my front nine that I was able to hole and make a bunch of birdies. I'll take my 65.”
The weather played a role this week for many of the players in the field; Ko said they all thought about the conditions at one point during the week.
“I think we were all worried about the weather at one stage, and even coming off yesterday to 54 holes, we were like, "Oh, thank God." We knew that the weather was going to be pretty decent today, and I think it was even better than the forecast,” said Ko. “It's great. It's great that 72 holes are done, and a lot of fans were able to come out today. It looks like there's a lot of kids, which is always great for the game.”
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