Choi notches her 4th title of 2019 at McCol Yongpyong Resort Open with SBS Golf

Choi Hye-jin

By Kim Jeong-kyoo

Choi Hye-jin won the McCol Yongpyong Resort Open with SBS Golf, Sunday, beating Lee So-young by two strokes. No contestant got dangerously close to Choi throughout the round once she had taken the lead.

The 19-year-old looked set to triumph when she rattled off four birdies at Nos. 1 through 4 to take the sole lead. To set the seal on her victory, she added her fifth birdie of the day at No. 6.

The momentum appears to be building for the unstoppable Choi. The win was her fourth KLPGA Tour victory of 2019 and her eighth career title. She received a total of 120 million won in prize money.

Choi finished the final day at 3-under for an overall 10-under 206 at the 5,884-meter BirchHill Golf Club in Yongpyong, PyeongChang, Gangwon Province. She broke 70s every day, romping in with impressive rounds of 69-68-69.

Playing in the last group with Lee So-young, Choi entered the final round a stroke shy of overnight leader Yoon Seo-hyun. But no sooner had she come out of the gate in a buoyant and optimistic mood, she supplanted the overnight leader.

With the third birdie of the day at No. 3, she led the field by three strokes as her closest rival Yoon squandered a stroke on the same. For Choi, the omens looked propitious from the beginning.

Choi rattled off her fourth birdie at No. 4, giving herself ample breathing room with a four-shot lead.

To say nothing of her four birdies in a row, she showed her putting mettle at No. 5 when she faced her first crisis of the day.

Then, when Choi rattled off her fifth birdie at No. 6, the audience started to expect her to break her own course record.

However, she incurred her first bogey of the day at No. 8 when she pushed her tee shot into a bunker, finding her ball submerged in the sand. She got out of the dreaded fried egg lie with her second shot, but into the deep rough just near the bunker. Eventually, she put her ball on the green with her fourth shot.

Choi played the front nine in 4-under 32, leading her closest rival Han Jin-seon by two strokes at the turn.

There was a strong wind blowing when Choi pulled her tee shot into the bunker on the 14th. Then she went on to incur her second bogey of the day to drop down to 10-under, two shots clear of Lee, then her nearest rival at 8-under.

At the 15th which played the hardest during the week, she overshot the green and made a great chip shot, getting up and down for a good par. The par-saving putt made her victory almost secure. Her nearest rival Lee bogeyed the same, all but shattering hopes for her to triumph.

However, Choi had a bogey on No. 16, seeing her three-shot lead shrink to two with two holes remaining. She allowed Lee to pin her hopes on the next two holes.

Getting through the par-3 17th without incident, Choi whacked her 18th tee shot without much misgivings. As Lee failed to birdie the previous hole, she was no longer a threat to Choi. To notch the title, Choi needed only a par.

After setting up a chance for a birdie with a perfect third shot on the last hole, she walked up triumphantly toward the green.

Following her acknowledging the crowd after birdying the hole, her fans around the green were delighted.

“I'm speechless,” Choi said in a televised interview, her delight interrupting her sentences.

Playing in the final group with Choi and Yoon, Lee So-young hit a one-under 71. With an aggregate 8-under 208, two shots shy of Choi, she settled for second place.

Han Jin-seon got within two strokes at one point, but ended with a two-way tie for third place with Yang Chae-lin at three shots behind.