Jubilant scenes broke out on the 18th green at Sahalee Country Club as Amy Yang finally became a major champion.
The South Korean carded a final-round 72 to win the KPMG Women’s PGA Championship by three shots from three other players, 75 starts into her major career and 16 years after her first season on the LPGA Tour.
Despite winning five times on the circuit including last year’s CME Group Tour Championship, a major title always alluded Yang before the week in Washington. 21 top 10’s in the women’s game’s five big tournaments, and two runner-up finishes, were burning a hole in her record.
Yang began the final round in Sammamish with a two-shot advantage and although the deficit was cut to one shot early on, she kept her foot on the gas with birdies on holes 5, 8, 11 and 13 to take a three-shot lead walking down the 72nd hole.
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Amy Yang: LPGA Tour star finally becomes a major winner
“It’s incredible. I was so nervous at the beginning of the day, even the night before, and I told Jan on the 18th fairway, these have been the longest 18 holes I ever played in my career,” she said.
“I was that stressed and felt pressure out there. But I think I managed to stay well and stay positive, and of course with him as well he makes things light out there. You know, at one point I thought will I ever win a major championship before I retire, and I finally did it and it’s just amazing.
“That self-talk kept coming up and wasn’t easy out there” she added. “But I’ve learned so many times it’s just focus on what I can control on the golf course out there and keep doing what I’ve been doing. I told myself maybe more than a thousand times out there just do what I prepared is and what you’ve been doing at the practice days.”
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One of her closest pursuers Lauren Hartlage made damaging double bogeys on holes 7 and 8, while Miyu Yamashita also made a double bogey on the 8th which allowed Yang some breathing room. She led by seven at one stage, but her victory didn’t come without some late drama.
Having bogeyed the 16th hole, Yang found the water on the par-3 17th to make a double bogey of her own. She’d have been grateful to find the fairway on 18 after this blunder and from there, she made par to finish on seven-under for the week. She won her ninth professional tournament and earned a spot on the South Korean Olympic team for the summer games in France.
“I wasn’t aware of it, because I really wanted to represent South Korea,” she added. “That was one of my biggest goals for this year. Missing cuts in the past few tournaments and I saw my world ranking went down so I wasn’t sure if winning was enough to make the team. But I made it, so I’m very grateful for that.
“It’s been the best fans. It’s been incredible all this week. Everyone was rooting for me. I want to go sign some autographs for them. Like to thank them for all the support, and that gave me a lot of good positive vibes out there.”
Charley Hull carded a final-round 74 to finish in a tied for 16th, the UK’s best effort of the week.
Final leaderboard at the 2024 Women’s KPMG PGA Championship
-7 A Yang
-4 L Vu, M Yamashita, J Young Ko
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-3 A Ewing, L Hartlage
-2 M Saigo, H Shibuno
-1 L Grant, H Ryu, C Inglis, L Thompson, S Schmelzel
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