World No. 2 Park In-bee earns 5th LPGA win of 2015
Park In-bee kisses the trophy after winning the LPGA Lorena Ochoa Invitational in Mexico City, Sunday. / AP-Yonhap
South Korean Park In-bee captured her fifth LPGA Tour win of the season in Mexico on Sunday, putting herself in the thick of the race for a major season-ending individual award.
Park, world No. 2, claimed the Lorena Ochoa Invitational at 18-under 270, following a bogey-free final round of eight-under 64 at Club de Golf Mexico in Mexico City. It was her 17th career victory.
Park fended off a red-hot Carlota Ciganda, who came up three shots behind despite a blistering final round of 63.
With the victory, Park moved to 270 points in the Player of the Year points race, only three back of world No. 1 Lydia Ko with one tournament remaining, the CME Group Tour Championship that starts Thursday in Naples, Florida.
A victory is worth 30 points and a runner-up finish is worth 12 points, and so forth. Points are doubled at the Tour Championship.
Ko sat out the Lorena Ochoa Invitational, citing fatigue.
Park also moved ahead of Ko in the scoring average, 69.433 strokes to 69.449 strokes per round.
Park earned US$200,000 with the win in Mexico to move to a career-high $2.57 million, right behind Ko's $2.75 million. The winner's purse at the Tour Championship is $500,000.
Park won the money titles in 2012 and 2013, and finished second last year.
Park was locked in from tee to green in the final round. She missed just one fairway while hitting 17 of 18 greens in regulation.
Park said she felt it was her short stick that made the biggest difference.
"I think it was definitely the putter; it was really good this week," she told LPGA.com. "I made a lot of birdies this week. It was a lot of fun today with Carlota playing so well, and I didn't know I needed an eight-under to win today. I didn't make any mistakes, so I was able to focus on my game."
Park opened the final round with a three-shot lead over South Korean rookie Kim Sei-young. Yet, it was Ciganda, playing in the final group with Park and Kim, who mounted the biggest threat Sunday, as she started the day with a birdie and an eagle and trailed Park by just one shot at 12-under at the turn.
Park birdied the par-4 13th to reach 16-under and move ahead of Ciganda by two strokes, but Ciganda kept the pressure on with a birdie on the par-3 14th that cut the deficit back to one.
After both players parred par-4 15th, Ciganda blinked on the 16th. She found trouble off the tee at the par-3 hole and committed her first bogey of the day. Park picked up a par for a two-shot lead with two holes to play.
Both Park and Ciganda had birdies at the par-5 17th, and Park punctuated her victory with her eighth birdie of the round at the par-4 18th.
Park is the third straight South Korean champion on the tour. Eight different South Koreans have combined for 15 wins in 31 LPGA events so far. (Yonhap)