Sei Young Kim holed out her second shot, an 8-iron from 154 yards, on the first playoff hole to defeat Rolex Rankings No. 3 Inbee Park and claim her second-career LPGA victory at the LOTTE Championship Presented by HERSHEY.
“I don’t know what happened today,” Kim said with a huge smile in the media center following her round. “There was 140 meters, so I think about between 7 or 8. And so I chose 8 normal, and it was good choice.”
Playing first, Kim sent her ball skyward and it took two hops before nestling in the bottom of the cup. Kim seemed to be in disbelief before finally throwing her hands in the air and high fiving her caddie. When Park was unable to match the feat, Kim got to take a champion’s walk to 18 to retrieve her ball from the bottom of the cup.
“Today I didn’t see it coming,” Kim admitted through her interpreter. “I don’t know what I’ve done again to deserve this, but I feel like every time I win a tournament I have to do something crazy or overcome some type of obstacles. I don’t know why it keeps happening, but it feels good.”
Kim got into the playoff with a little bit of magic when, after finding the water with her drive on the 18th in regulation, she got up-and-down for par thanks to a chip-in from 18 feet.
“On the 18th when I hit my hybrid I thought there was no way that it would fall into the hazard. I thought it would come short. When it happened I just tried to get myself under control because something crazy just happened to me,” Kim said through a translator. “I thought maybe something crazy will happen again, so I tried to get myself under control and calm myself, and look what happened.“
Fellow playoff competitor Park came away impressed after playing with Kim for the final two rounds.
“Obviously able to chip in and hole out from there, she’s a good player,” Park said. “She’s already won twice this year and she has definitely proven herself that she can compete out here. She’s a great player; I think she’s a great fighter.”
I.K. Kim finished in third at 9-under after bogeys on 17 and 18, while Hyo Joo Kim and Chella Choi rounded out the top-5 at 7 under.
numbers to know
154 - Number of yards on Sei Young Kim’s hole out for eagle to win on the first playoff hole
18 - Number of feet on Sei Young Kim’s par chip to force a playoff
5 - The top-5 players on the leaderboard are from South Korea
4 - Only four players shot rounds in the 60s today - Hyo Joo Kim (69), Sandra Gal (69), Shanshan Feng (69) and Ayako Uehara (69)
1.53- The course played 1.53 strokes more difficult on Sunday than Saturday
not even her best
For most golfers a walk-off eagle on a par-4 to win a golf tournament would be the shot of their life, not 2015 LOTTE Championship Presented by Hershey winner Sei Young Kim.
“You know, I think this is probably the second most memorable shot for me,” Kim admitted through an interpreter. “Because in 2013 on KLPGA, I won a tournament which had the biggest prize money on KLPGA. I won that tournament by making a hole-in-one on 17, so that was probably my most memorable shot.”
bouncing back from a major disappointment
Throughout the week, Sei Young Kim pointed to her disappointing final round 75 at the ANA Inspiration as the motivating factor for her strong play.
“As I mentioned, it was a motivating factor for me,” Kim said through her interpreter. “After ANA leading up to this tournament I had tough time sleeping because that was my first major opportunity to win a major tournament on the LPGA Tour. I almost felt a little bit of guilt that I let that slip away. At the same time, I saw the possibility and the potential that I thought that belonged there and that can win a major championship in the future. So a lot of those lessons that I learned the last day at ANA Inspiration I was able to take in into application this week in the tournament, and I think this helped me tremendously.”
Kim felt some deja vu during the day when she made a few errors including her wayward drive on 18 but was able to overcome them and walk away with the win.
“Throughout the round today I was telling myself, I don’t know if I can live with myself if I make the same mistakes in two consecutive weeks,” Kim explained through her interpreter. “I’m relieved that I was able to win the tournament, and I am looking forward to going home and getting some sleep tonight. “
Quote of the Day
“She said two things - How did you get that in, and congratulations.”
-Sei Young Kim (through interpretor) on what fellow playoff competitor Inbee Park said to her following her hole-out eagle on the first playoff hole
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