UPDATE 4:04 p.m. CT - Sung Hyun Park rolled in her birdie putt at the par 4, 16th hole to defeat So Yeon Ryu and win the 2018 KPMG Women's PGA Championship. Updates to follow.
UPDATE 4:00 p.m. CT - The playoff has resumed between So Yeon Ryu and Sung Hyun Park on the second playoff hole at the par 4, 16th.
UPDATE 3:40 p.m. CT - The playoff between So Yeon Ryu and Sung Hyun Park was suspended on the second playoff hole due to severe weather in the area. Nasa Hataoka was eliminated on the first playoff hole.
The KPMG Women’s PGA Championship is going to extra holes.
After 72 holes of the KPMG Women’s PGA Championship, Nasa Hataoka, Sung Hyun Park and So Yeon Ryu finished regulation tied at 10-under par. The trio will return to the par 4, 18th hole for a sudden death playoff. If additional holes are needed, the playoff will continue at the 16th, 17th and 18th holes.
Hataoka, who began the day 9-strokes back of the lead, recorded the low round of the championship with an 8-under par, 64 to climb to 10-under par. She teed off an hour and a half before Park and Ryu and waited and watched TV from the clubhouse as the leaders fell back.
Ryu, who led by three-strokes to start the day, struggled early with a double-bogey at the par 4, 2nd hole to open the door for her competitors. She rebounded to make the turn in Even par and extended her lead to two with three holes to play. But her tee shot at the difficult par 3, 17th hole found the water and made her second double-bogey of the day to drop back into a tie at the top with Park and Hataoka. Ryu posted a final round 1-over par, 73.
Park quietly climbed the leaderboard with a 3-under par, 69 and had the only bogey-free round on Sunday. She made a critical up and down to save par at the 16th hole from the tall grass surrounding the water just short of the green, which kept her championship hopes alive.
The winners of the first two majors of the year, the ANA Inspiration and the U.S. Women's Open, were also determined by a playoff.
)
)
)
)
