Redemption is sweet. More than five years after In-Kyung Kim missed a 14-inch putt that would have given her first major title at the 2012 Kraft Nabisco Championship, she finally can say she is a major champion.
Kim notoriously missed a one-foot putt at the 2012 Kraft Nabisco Championship, which cost her an outright victory. She would go on to lose the major title in the first hole of the playoff to Sun Young Yoo. That putt, however, is no longer her major legacy.
The 29-year-old South Korean shot a final-round 1-under par 71 on Sunday for a 270 total and a two-stroke victory at the Ricoh Women’s British Open held at Kingsbarns Golf Links in Scotland.
Starting the day with a six-shot lead, Kim knocked it stiff at the par-3 first for a kick-in birdie. She played steady golf going out in 1-under 35, and then ran off nine straight pars on the back side to capture her seventh LPGA Tour event, but more importantly the elusive first major.
”I almost cried when I won. Winning is great,” Kim said after the round. ”It’s a long process to get over 2012. A lot of people helped me. Now I enjoy playing golf again. What it did teach me is to give the same effort to every shot, even the shortest of putts.”
“I cannot describe my feelings,” she continued.
I.K. Kim’s popular victory makes her the ninth different player to win the last nine majors on the LPGA Tour.
— Doug Ferguson (@dougferguson405) August 6, 2017
The closest anybody got all day was within two and that was courtesy of the runner-up, England’s Jodi Ewart Shadoff, who fired a course-record tying 8-under par 64. American Michelle Wie put up a fight in the final round posting 6-under 66, which was good enough for a T3 finish alongside Georgia Hall and Caroline Masson.
Here’s a look at the I.K. Kim’s final round highlights and results from the 2017 Ricoh Women’s British Open:
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