Amy Yang captures 1st LPGA major title, grabs Olympic spot
Amy Yang of Korea poses with her trophy after winning the 2024 KPMG Women's PGA Championship at Sahalee Country Club, Sammamish, Washington, June 23 in this picture provided by gettyimagesbank. AFP-Yonhap
Korean veteran Amy Yang has claimed her first LPGA major title in her 75th try, while also grabbing a last-minute spot in the upcoming Olympic tournament in Paris.
Yang shot a seven-under 281 to win the KPMG Women's PGA Championship by three strokes at Sahalee Country Club in Sammamish, Washington, a suburb east of Seattle, on Sunday (local time).
Yang started the final round with a two-shot lead and shot an even-par 72, while other contenders fell by the wayside.
Yang, whose Korean given name is Hee-young, is the first South Korean to win on the LPGA Tour this year and the first player from the country to win an LPGA major since June 2022, when Chun In-gee won the KPMG Women's PGA Championship.
This was the 16th tournament of the 2024 season, and South Korea had its longest LPGA title drought to start a season since 2000 before Yang's breakthrough.
Yang had also been the last South Korean to win on the tour, with her victory at the CME Group Tour Championship in November to end the 2023 season.
Yang, 34, now has six LPGA wins. She had gone more than four years between her fourth and fifth victories, ending that drought at last year's CME Group Tour Championship.
In her 74 previous major appearances, Yang had 21 top-10s, including a pair of fourth-place finishes last year.
"All the hard work our team did together, I am so grateful for that," Yang said in a televised interview on the 18th green. "All four rounds, it was really tough out there. But I just trusted what I prepared. I did my best all week. I've always wanted to win a major. I came close several times. I started doubting myself if I was ever going to win a major before I retired. I am so grateful. I am very, very happy to win a major."
Amy Yang of Korea is doused with champagne after winning the KPMG Women's PGA Championship at Sahalee Country Club, Sammamish, Washington, June 23 in this picture provided by gettyimagesbank. AFP-Yonhap
With this major title, Yang is projected to crack the top 15 in the world rankings and grab a spot in the Olympic tournament in Paris next month.
The Olympic field of 60 players will be determined based on world rankings after the KPMG Women's PGA Championship. Players inside the top 15 are eligible, with a maximum of four players per country. Countries can then send up to two players ranked outside the top 15, as long as they don't already have two players qualified.
Prior to this tournament, South Korea had two players ranked among the top 15 -- Ko Jin-young at No. 7 and Kim Hyo-joo at No. 12. Yang entered the week at No. 25 and wouldn't have been eligible for the Olympics since South Korea already had Ko and Kim inside the top 15.
Earlier this month, Yuka Saso of Japan soared from No. 30 to No. 6 in the rankings after winning the U.S. Women's Open, the previous major tournament. This makes it likely that Yang will also move inside the top 15 with her major title.
Though the rankings won't officially come out until Monday morning in U.S. time, the LPGA Tour announced after this major tournament that Yang will jump into the top 15.
Yang, who only found out after her win that she would make it to the Olympics, said she "really wanted to represent Korea" in Paris.
"That was one of my biggest goals for this year," said Yang, who tied for fourth at the 2016 Olympics in Rio de Janeiro. "Missing cuts past few tournaments and I saw my world ranking went down so I wasn't sure if this winning was enough to make the team. But I made it, so I'm very grateful for that.
Yang started the final round at seven-under, two shots ahead of Lauren Hartlage of the United States and Miyu Yamashita of Japan.
Hartlage put some pressure on Yang early in the final group and found herself trailing by one stroke after both made birdies on the par-three fifth -- with Yang chipping in from off the green.
However, Hartlage quickly played her way out of contention with double bogeys on the seventh and then eighth holes, which dropped her to three-under. Yang birdied the eighth to reach nine-under.
Those playing ahead of Yang's final group tried to make things interesting, though their efforts proved futile. World No. 2 Lilia Vu birdied three straight holes, starting on the 10th, to reach five-under, before back-to-back bogeys on the 14th and 15th took the wind out of her sails.
Yang enjoyed a five-shot lead with nine to play. She bogeyed the 10th hole but bounced right back with a birdie on the very next hole. On the par-three 13th, Yang set up a four-foot birdie opportunity with an excellent tee shot and drained that putt to get to 10-under.
Yang's lead grew to six shots after Vu's bogey on the 14th. She still had a three-shot advantage after three-putting for a bogey on the 16th and then putting her tee shot into the water en route to a double bogey on the 17th.
Yang steadied herself and reached the green in three on the par-five 18th, where she tapped in for a par to close out the win.
Several Korean players then came out to the 18th green to douse Yang with champagne. (Yonhap)