When Lizette Salas sank her final putt on the 72nd hole of last year’s Kingsmill Championship Presented by JTBC, the elusive win she’d been chasing since turning pro was finally hers.
The four-stroke win helped erase heartbreaking memories from a 2013 playoff loss to Suzann Pettersen in Hawaii and a handful of other near-misses for Salas, and she could finally call herself an LPGA champion. Salas, known for her warm and friendly personality, celebrated with friends and basked in the glow of her achievement.
“I’m just so happy,” she said after the win. “It’s just a huge weight off my shoulders. To have my first win here at Kingsmill is pretty special.”
Salas has made six of seven cuts this season, but is still searching for her first top-10 finish. It very well could come this week on the Kingsmill Resort’s River Course in Williamsburg, Va., and Salas should be considered one of the favorites to contend for the title.
Cristie Kerr, a three-time winner (2005, 2009, 2013) at the Kingsmill Resort, will likely also be in the mix this weekend. Kerr, who won the Kia Classic in late March, has risen to seventh in the Rolex Women’s Golf World Rankings after top-10 finishes in two of her last three events.
Other past Kingsmill champions teeing it up this week are Hall of Famer Karrie Webb (2006) and Pettersen (2007), and world No. 1 Lydia Ko is also competing. Second-ranked Inbee Park and third-ranked Stacy Lewis will also be inside the ropes in Virginia, and they will be joined by a bevy of talent that includes 2015 tournament champions Sei Young Kim, Hyo Joo Kim, Amy Yang and Brittany Lincicome.
Sarah Jane Smith, Yani Tseng and Lexi Thompson tied for second place a year ago and will have another chance to excel on the par-71, 6,379-yard track this week. So Yeon Ryu tied Ko for fifth place and should be another contender to look for on Golf Channel.
No player has successfully defended her title in this tournament, and only Kerr has won the event more than once, so Salas will have her work cut out for her. Two of the last three years have needed a sudden-death playoff to decide the victor, and so the leaderboard should be tight again this year.
Kingsmill’s champions have an average winning score of nearly 13-under-par, so there should be plenty of red numbers on the scoreboard. More birdies often means more drama, and that certainly could be the case in Virginia this week.
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