05 Sep 2022 | Professional golf |
Aussies on Tour: Kim closes in on LPGA Tour card
by Australian Golf Media
Sydney’s Grace Kim has all but wrapped up her promotion to the LPGA Tour in 2023 with a top-five finish at the Epson Tour’s Wildhorse Ladies Classic in Oregon.
With four events left in the season Kim’s tie for third at the Wildhorse Resort has elevated her one extra spot into fourth on the Race to the Card standings, the top 10 at season’s end graduating to the LPGA Tour.
Just one shot off the lead at the start of play, Kim birdied the second hole but suffered a double blow either side of the turn.
She bogeyed the par-4 ninth to drop to 11-under and then double-bogeyed 10 to fall back into the pack.
Displaying tremendous grit, the 21-year-old made a late run with five birdies in her final six holes to finish four back of champion Daniela Iacobelli.
A winner of the IOA Golf Classic in May, Kim now boasts three further top-five finishes and is on course to fulfil her destiny of mixing it with the best women players in the game from next year and into the future.
It promises to be a thrilling finale to the Epson Tour season with Gabriela Ruffels (12th) and Robyn Choi (13th) also in the hunt for a LPGA Tour card.
Like Kim, Hannah Green had a peek at the top of the leaderboard early in the final round of the LPGA Tour’s Dana Open in Ohio.
Two birdies in her opening four holes had the 25-year-old just one shot back in a tie for second but from there she couldn’t advance her score any further.
The West Australian had birdie looks that failed to fall and scrambled pars when she needed, closing with 14 consecutive pars to end the week in a tie for 10th.
The four Aussie hopefuls failed to secure a PGA TOUR card at the Korn Ferry Tour Championship and South Australian left-hander showed a promising return to form with a top-30 finish at the Japan Golf Tour’s Fuji Sankei Classic.
Results
Epson Tour
Wildhorse Ladies Classic
Wildhorse Resort and Casino, Pendleton, Oregon
Winner Daniela Iacobelli 65-67-66—198 $US30,000
T3 Grace Kim 64-69-69—202 $11,227
T9 Amelia Garvey (NZ) 69-69-67—205 $4,453
T12 Gabriela Ruffels68-71-67—206 $3,341
T38 Hira Naveed 65-73-72—210 $1,240
T45 Robyn Choi 65-73-73—211 $990
MC Julienne Soo 72-74—146
MC Emily Mahar 75-74—149
MC Soo Jin Lee 74-75—149
MC Julianne Alvarez 75-75—150
MC Stephanie Na 74-78—152
Korn Ferry Tour
Korn Ferry Tour Championship
Victoria National GC, Newburgh, Indiana
Winner Justin Suh 66-69-64-68—267
T46 Aaron Baddeley72-70-68-70—280
T52 Jason Scrivener71-67-71-73—282
MC Min Woo Lee 72-72—144
MC Anthony Quayle 73-73—146
WD Harrison Endycott 70
DP World Tour
Made in HimmerLand
HimmerLand, Farsø, Denmark
Winner Oliver Wilson 66-65-65-67—263 €510,000
MC Maverick Antcliff 73-68—141
MC Zach Murray 73-71—144
MC Dimitrios Papadatos 77-68—145
MC Elvis Smylie 76-71—147
MC Scott Hend 80-77—157
Japan Golf Tour
Fuji Sankei Classic
Fujizakura Country Club, Yamanashi
Winner Kaito Ohnishi 67-70-68-68—273 ¥22m - Won on the first hole of sudden death playoff
T30 Adam Bland 70-74-70-70—284 ¥658,625
T58 Matthew Griffin 72-73-74-75—294 ¥255,200
MC Brad Kennedy 71-75—146
MC Michael Hendry71-75—146
MC Brendan Jones 75-72—147
MC Andrew Evans 75-73—148
LPGA Tour
Dana Open
Highland Meadows Golf Club, Sylvania, Ohio
Winner Gaby Lopez 67-70-66-63—266 $US262,500
T10 Hannah Green 74-62-66-69—271 $33,168
T16 Lydia Ko 66-72-64-71—273 $20,826
T45 Stephanie Kyriacou 71-69-67-70—277 $7,088
T49 Minjee Lee 67-72-70-69—278 $5,914
MC Sarah Kemp 73-70—143
MC Sarah Jane Smith 73-70—143
MC Su Oh 76-74—150
Challenge Tour
B-NL Challenge Trophy by Hulencourt
Hulencourt, Genappe, Belgium
Winner Alexander Knappe 68-66-66-68—268 €40,000
T59 Jordan Zunic 69-65-74-74—282 €775
T59 Daniel Hillier 69-70-72-71—282 €775
PGA TOUR Canada
Golf BC Championship
Gallagher's Canyon G&CC, Kelowna, British Columbia
Winner Noah Goodwin 67-61-69-64—261
MC Will Barnett 71-70—141
LIV Golf Boston
The International (Oaks Cse), Boston, Massachusetts
Winner Dustin Johnson 67-63-65—195 $US4m - Won on the first hole of sudden death playoff
T4 Cameron Smith64-69-63—196 $1,012,500
T26 Jediah Morgan 71-70-65—206 $160,000
T26 Matt Jones 69-67-70—206 $160,000
T26 Marc Leishman70-64-72—206 $160,000
43 Wade Ormsby 73-71-70—214 $130,000
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