Lilia Vu leapt into the history books with her win at the Chevron Championship, becoming the first player to win the major in its new home at The Club at Carlton Woods. And Vu ensured the winner’s tradition of making the celebratory leap into the water beside the 18th green would continue as the first-time major champion jumped into the pond to usher in a new era in Texas.
“I think Cole and I kind of passed by on 18 during the practice round and kind of discussed would you jump, and I was like, yeah, I would jump. If I won here, of course I would jump,” Vu said about the discussion she had with her caddie, Cole Pensanti, about leaping into the pond. “Yesterday or the day before we saw a snake on 17 pond, so I was kind of thinking about that today, but I think the emotions were high and just adrenaline, got to jump into that pond.”
Vu defeated Angel Yin on the first hole of the playoff, which saw the two return to the 18th hole at the Jack Nicklaus Signature Course. With her victory, Vu became the first two-time winner of the season having captured her maiden win in February at the Honda LPGA Thailand.
And what better way for the newly minted major champion to celebrate than to simply go home.
With her second trophy of the season in tow, Vu returns to her native Los Angeles, where the LPGA Tour also has its next stop - the JM Eagle LA Championship presented by Plastpro. Vu is an alumna of UCLA who was born and raised a 30-minute drive south of downtown Los Angeles and is slated to compete.
While the event name may be new, the venue will be familiar as the tournament takes over at Wilshire Country Club, where the tour had previously played the DIO Implant LA Open, which moved this season to Palos Verdes Golf Club.
As the most recent winner and first major champion of the season, Vu headlines a strong field in her hometown which features eight of the top 10 in the Rolex Rankings and 17 of the top 20 in the world. A total of 144 players will compete over the course of four days for one of the biggest purses outside the majors with $3 million up for grabs.
Yin, who finished runner-up to Vu in The Woodlands, is in the field in her hometown of Los Angeles. Nelly Korda is also making the trip from Houston to Hollywood and will look to build on the third place finish she recorded at the season’s first major. And the four players who have previously won at Wilshire Country Club are also in the field with Brooke Henderson, Minjee Lee, Moriya Jutanugarn, and Nasa Hataoka returning to L.A.
But the world’s best golfers won’t be the only stars making headlines this weekend at Wilshire as some of the biggest golf fans in showbiz will be making an appearance alongside the LPGA’s finest. Celebrities like actress Kathryn Newton, former Los Angeles Laker Pau Gasol, and New Kids On the Block’s Joey McIntyre are a few of the stars who will be on-site throughout the week.
Vu will no doubt enjoy a newfound stardom of her own when she returns home this week to Hollywood. And after helping to write the next era in the history of one of the tour’s beloved events, she begins the next chapter in her own career - as a major champion.
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