KirkwoodGolf: LORENA OCHOA MATCH-PLAY

Monday, May 08, 2017

LORENA OCHOA MATCH-PLAY

MEXICO CITY -- Sei Young Kim held off Ariya Jutanugarn 1 up on Sunday to win the Lorena Ochoa Match Play for her sixth LPGA Tour title.

After Jutanugarn won the par-5 17th with a birdie to force another hole, Kim finished off the match with a halve for a par on the par-4 18th.

In the morning semifinals at Club de Golf Mexico, Kim beat Mi Jung Hur 5 and 4, and the third-ranked Jutanugarn topped Michelle Wie 4 and 3. Hur won the third-place match, overcoming a five-hole deficit to beat Wie in 22 holes.

Kim also beat Maude-Aimee Leblanc (3 and 1), Danielle Kang (3 and 2), Charley Hull (3 and 1) and Karine Icher (5 and 4) in the event that switched from stroke to match play and moved from November. The 24-year-old South Korean player is projected to jump from 12th to eighth in the world ranking.

Kim opened birdie-eagle-birdie to take a 3-up lead in the final. Jutanugarn, a five-time winner last year, won the par-5 10th with a birdie, Kim took the par-4 12th with a birdie, and Jutanugarn cut the deficit to two holes with a par win on the par-4 14th.

Wie had a 5-up lead over Hur after 10 holes. Hur took five of the next seven holes to tie it and won with a birdie on the 22nd hole.

Wie is winless since the 2014 U.S. Women's Open. She won the then-Lorena Ochoa Invitational in stroke play in 2009 in Guadalajara for her first tour title.

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