By Keely Levins
You’d think 20-under would be good enough to win an LPGA event, but when Sei Young Kim is on, that’s not going to do it. It was Lexi Thompson who shot 20-under at the Marathon Classic presented by Dana, to finish alone in second, two shots behind Kim. That’s low, but still nine shots off of her LPGA-record 31-under par set at the 2018 Thornberry Creek LPGA Classic.

Kim was unflappable on Sunday at Highland Meadows Golf Club in Sylvania, Ohio. Starting the day a stroke ahead of playing partner Thompson, the 26-year-old from South Korea shot a 6-under 65 that included five birdies in a row.

“I’ve played with her a lot just in my career, and she’s an amazing talent, it showed today,” said Thompson of Kim. “She went through a stretch on the front nine or going into the back where she stuck every shot. Had under five feet about four times in a row, so it was a very well deserved win by her.”

This is Kim’s ninth LPGA win in her short career. She joined the LPGA Tour in 2015 and won Rookie of the Year that year. She’s won one other time this season, at the LPGA Mediheal Championship. That event was won in a playoff. It was Kim’s fourth playoff of her career, and she has yet to lose when she’s in a playoff.

Though Kim, ranked No. 12 in the world before this victory, is a proven champion, she has yet to win a major. She has top-10 finishes in each major on the LPGA calendar, including a second-place finish in the KPMG Women’s PGA Championship (2015) and a T-2 in the Evian Championship (2018).

After winning in Ohio, Kim said that she hasn’t set specific goals about the upcoming majors yet, but a major victory is on her mind. The next one, the Evian Championship in France, is in two weeks.

The post Sei Young Kim wins head-to-head duel with Lexi Thompson at the Marathon Classic presented by Dana appeared first on Golf Digest Middle East.

By Keely Levins
The Jutanugarn sisters are no longer the only, women from Thailand to win on the LPGA tour. After shooting 65 on Sunday at the Marathon Classic and beating Brittany Lincicome in a playoff, Thidapa Suwannapura has won her first LPGA event and becomes the third woman from Thailand to win on tour.

Suwannapura, who birdied the first playoff hole to beat Lincicome, turned professional after Q-School in 2011, and has been waiting seven years for this first win.

“I never expect it was going to be today at all,” she said. “I’ve just been struggling the whole year and tried to keep my tour card and try my best. Finally, all my work I’ve been doing has come out and shown up today.”

Before her 65-69-71-65 performance at Highland Meadows Golf Club, Suwannapura’s best finish on the LPGA was a 7th place at the 2014 Kingsmill Championship. In the 2018 season, she’s had one top-20 finish and has missed the cut in six of the 16 events she’s played.

The 25-year-old, who took up residence in Virginia, had to wait over an hour for the final group to finish. After Brooke Henderson knocked in her par putt to miss the playoff by one shot, Suwannapura and Lincicome went to the par-5 18th for the first playoff hole. Lincicome drove it into the fairway bunker off the tee and then put her next shot into a hazard. But she got up and down after her drop to make par. Suwannapura didn’t falter under the pressure of needing to make birdie, however. Her putt fell, and suddenly she had defeated a two-time major winner.

“[On the] last hole I know that she’s going to make par. I know that, so I just tried my best to make birdie, and that’s it,” Suwannapura said after the round.

For her next event, Lincicome is headed to the Barbasol Championship. It will be her first time playing against the men in a PGA Tour event.

As for Suwannapura, her win in Toledo earns her a trip to the Ricoh Women’s British Open.

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