Ko wins third LPGA title this year

Pressel missed the cut a year ago, but she has finished as high as 16th in her eight previous appearances at the tournament.

When Lydia Ko finished her round on Saturday with a 28 on the back nine, tying the overall tournament lead, you could see the world’s top ranked golfer winning the Walmart Northwest Arkansas Championship.

Mika Miyazato, also from Okinawa, said, “I’ve come second and third here before”.

Kung posted her low round of 2016 and appeared relaxed on a day that saw her make just one bogey. 11-14 turned her showdown for Ko into a fight to second. After Pressel bogeyed the par-5 second, Ko went from even to three shots clear of the field after only two holes. The major victor at the 2007 Kraft Nabisco Championship (now the ANA Inspirtation) has finished second five times since her last victory including last month in Alabama.

“I’ve played well here the last three years and have had really solid Sundays”, said Ko. “I definitely felt a little exhausted going into the back nine and I think the sun kind of got to me, but I love coming here and I’m looking forward to coming back”. “I feel very lucky with what has happened”.

Her week in Rogers is always full of off-course obligations, including headlining Monday’s Pantene Beautiful Lengths – an event that donates hair for wigs for cancer patients, a cause special to her after losing her mother to breast cancer in 2003. “It’s upsetting to not finish the way that I wanted to”.

After the excitement of the 17th, Lydia Ko found water on the 18th as she stuttered to her 13th career title.

The 19-year-old shot a final round three under par 68 to finish on 17 under for the tournament.

Lewis, formerly No. 1 in the world, said she just isn’t playing as well as in the past but said there’s no reason to think she can’t excel again. “I had more birdies than I thought I did and that motivated me more”.

Three-time major champion Singh, who has not won on the PGA Tour since 2008, could become the circuit’s oldest victor with a victory. With Pressel’s emotional attachment to this event, where she participates each year in the week’s Pantene Beautiful Lengths event which helps create wigs for those battling breast cancer, which she lost her mother to, the loss on Sunday was tough to bear. I hung in there but she was never rattled and just kept her same smooth tempo all day long. “I know it’s in there”.