Source :- PERTH NOW NEWS
Australian pair Minjee Lee and Cassie Porter have come home strongly at the Fortinet Founders Cup in California to record top-five finishes.
Porter fired a final-round 66 and Lee a 67 to both end their weekends 10 under the card, while compatriot Robyn Choi’s 71 left her one shot adrift in equal 12th.
But they couldn’t catch South Korean Hyo Joo Kim, who held off Nelly Korda at Sharon Heights to complete a wire-to-wire victory on Sunday.
Her opening five-stroke advantage gone after 10 holes, Kim regained the lead on the next hole and ended up with a one-shot margin after a closing bogey.
Kim shot a one-over 73 for a 16-under 272 total. The 30-year-old also won the 2015 event in Phoenix and now has eight LPGA Tour titles to go along with 14 KLPGA Tour victories.
“I enjoyed every single day, but this course was pretty tough,” Kim said through a translator.
American Korda (69), who won the season opener in Florida and then skipped the Asia swing, matched Kim with a bogey on No.2, then birdied six of the next eight to tie for the lead.
Kim went ahead again with a birdie on the par-4 11th, traded bogeys with Korda on the par-4 12th and took a two-stroke lead with a birdie on the par-4 14th.
World No.8 Kim gave back the stroke with a bogey on the par-4 16th, then saved par after hitting long on the par-3 17th. Korda three-putted for bogey on 17, missing a three-footer, to send Kim to 18 with the two-shot advantage that she ended up needing.
Kim won for the first time in a year since the Ford Championship in Phoenix, the event that begins Thursday at Whirlwind Golf Club.
“Obviously, something like 17 stings, so it is what it is,” Korda said.
“It’s golf. It’s a quick turnaround. There is next week. So, just going to take all the positives.”
South Korean duo Sei Young Kim (67) and Jin Hee Im (69) finished joint third at 11 under, while Thailand’s top-ranked Jeeno Thitikul (73) tied for 14th at eight under.
With AAP.
