PHOENIX (AP) — Sei Young Kim turned an anticipated Sunday shootout into a record-tying blowout.
The 23-year-old South Korean player matched Annika Sorenstam’s LPGA Tour scoring record of 27 under, closing with a 10-under 62 at Desert Ridge for a five-stroke victory in the JTBC Founders Cup.
“It’s a dream come true,” Kim said. “I scored 10 under. It’s my best score ever, ever.”
Sorenstam set the mark in 2001 at nearby Moon Valley, shooting a record 59 in the second round. Kim also matched the tournament record of 62 set Thursday by Mi Hyang Lee.
Kim missed a chance to break the marks when her 18-foot birdie try on the par-4 18th slid left.
“Congratulations to Sei Young on her outstanding play this week,” Sorenstam said from Tahoe, Nevada. “I thought she was going to make that last putt. It’s hard to believe it’s only her second year on the LPGA.”
Kim opened a six-stroke lead with an eagle on the par-5 11th and easily held off top-ranked Lydia Ko.
“She just was real calm and just played within herself all day,” caddie Paul Fusco said. “The momentum was going and she just kept riding it.”
Kim won last season in the Bahamas, Hawaii and China and was the LPGA Tour rookie of the year. Her four tour victories have come in a 31-event span. She will jump from seventh to fifth in the world ranking, putting her in the second position for South Korea’s four-woman Olympic team.
“Last couple tournaments I lost my confidence,” Kim said. “So, I try finding, come back to my confidence. But after this tournament, I come back say, ‘I’m Kim.” So, most happy with that.”
After two late bogeys Saturday left Kim a stroke behind third-round leader Eun-Hee Ji, she played the first 11 holes in 7 under on another hot, perfect day at Wildfire Golf Club.
Kim reduced the drama to the scoring-record chase with the eagle on No. 11, hitting a 5-wood from 241 yards to 3 feet. She birdied the par-4 13th, par-5 15th and par-4 16th — hitting to 2 feet — and saved par with a 7-footer on the par-3 17th.
Ko made four straight birdies on the back nine in a 65.
Jacqui Concolino, playing alongside Kim, was third at 20 under after a 68.
“First time for me being in that position playing with the leader and the winner of the tournament, eventually,” Concolino said. “I was kind of zoned out. I didn’t really realize how low she was going, but she put on a phenomenal performance.”
Stacy Lewis had a disappointing finish to stretch her victory drought to 44 events. Tied for second with Kim entering the round, the Texan three-putted from 5 feet for a double bogey on the par-3 fourth and shot a 70 to tie for fourth at 19 under. She won the event in 2013 and finished second the previous two years.
“You knew somebody was going to do it,” Lewis said. “Just the way this golf course was playing this week, you kind of had to figure somebody was going to go out there and shoot a low score.”
Lewis switched putters after an opening 70, going to a prototype model called the Happy Putter. It lived up to the name the next two days in rounds of 65 and 64, but produced few smiles Sunday.
“Not very good,” Lewis said. “Just got off to a bad start, and putts just didn’t go in like they had the last couple of days. I had a couple lip out.”
Ji (71) also was 19 under with 18-year-old Canadian Brooke Henderson (67), Megan Khang (66) and Paula Creamer (68).
“I looked up at the scoreboard a couple of times this week and I was like, ‘Wow, that’s really good shooting,’” Henderson said. “You just got to focus on your own game.”
U.S. Women’s Amateur champion Hannah O’Sullivan tied for 33rd at 13 under after a 67. The 17-year-old amateur is a high school senior in the Phoenix suburb of Chandler.
