For Lee, ranked No. 1 on the LPGA in 2022 in strokes gained/tee to green, it came down to putting on Sunday. She was close all day, lipping out and scaring the hole on numerous occasions, but putts just weren’t falling for the Australian.

“I was really concentrating on each shot one at a time, so I got on the putting green and I was like, ‘just trying to see it go in,’ and a lot of them lipped out,” Lee said. “At the end of the day I still got the job done, so I’m happy.”

Lee made the turn at one-over for the round after a bogey on the eighth. At one point early in the back nine, she was part of a three-way tie for the lead. But a birdie at 14 pulled her ahead and put her on the 18th tee with a one-shot lead over her playing partner, Thompson.

Thompson, for her part, is having a season of much-improved putting — a part of the game that has caused problems in the past. She’s ranked fifth on tour in strokes gained/putting. Pairing Thompson’s strong ball-striking with a hot putter is a formidable combination. Though it didn’t pay off with a win in New Jersey, Thompson has now finished runner-up twice in 2022.

“I think as athletes we just want to see our hard work pay off,” Thompson said, “and when I’m home, I’m doing two workouts a day. I’m putting in five to six hours out on the golf course, and just to see it pay off means the world to me. I’m going to continue to work my butt off and hopefully see the results.”

Lee’s demeanour didn’t change much throughout the final round. From good shots to lipped out putts, she never gave much away. That is, until the final putt. She finished with a birdie on the 18th to win by two, pumping her fist and beaming at her 19-under 269 performance, and her first win since claiming the Evian Championship last July.

“After I holed that last putt, I was really happy, obviously, and I have been playing really well,” Lee said. “So, I’m just proud of myself just that I played four days of really good golf and I was able to fight through this round and come out with a win.”

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The post Minjee Lee overcomes a cold putter to win Cognizant Founders Cup appeared first on Golf Digest Middle East.

By Keely Levins
The 2021 LPGA Tour season seems like it has belonged to Nelly Korda—her milestones including three wins (and her first major), a gold medal at the Olympics and climbing to World No. 1 for the first time in her career.

But Jin Young Ko’s dominant performance at the Cognizant Founders Cup on Sunday, a four-shot win over Caroline Masson at Mountain Ridge Country Club in New Jersey, serves as a reminder that the race for LPGA player of the year is far from over with three events left.

Ko, the World No. 2, came into the week talking about fatigue. The Founders Cup was the fourth straight tournament for the 26-year-old South Korean, and she said she was starting to feel the effects. Her play would lead you to believe otherwise, however. The most greens she missed in any round came on Sunday, when she missed just four. Her 18-under 280 total, kick-started by an opening-round 63 the propelled her to the wire-to-wire victory, earning her $450,000 and pushing her past $7 million in career LPGA earnings.

In the final round, played in cold, rainy conditions, Ko shot 66, her 14th consecutive round in the 60s, tying the LPGA record set by Annika Sorenstam in 2005 and equalled by So Yeon Ryu in 2016 into 2017. It isn’t the first time Ko has found herself in the company of golf’s greats in record books. In 2019, Ko broke Tiger Woods’ record for consecutive holes without a bogey. She played 114 straight holes at par or better, surpassing Woods’ record by four.

This win was Ko’s third of 2021, her first two coming at Volunteers of America Classic and the Cambia Portland Classic, and the 10th of her career, making her just the fifth Korean to claim double-digit LPGA titles. The only other player to win as many times this season is Korda. Both players are in good form, suggesting the LPGA’s player-of-the-year race isn’t likely to be decided until the final week of the season.

The post Jin Young Ko ties remarkable LPGA mark in runaway win at the Cognizant Founders Cup appeared first on Golf Digest Middle East.