Lilia Vu defeated Angel Yin in a playoff to claim her first major title and the first of the season with victory at the Chevron Championship.
Replaying the par-five 18th at Carlton Woods in Texas after the pair tied at 10 under for the tournament, Yin’s second shot found the water in front of the green.
Vu was over the green in two shots, but left herself a mid-range putt for birdie to win the championship which she duly holed to cue emotional celebrations from the 25-year-old.
This year’s tournament marked the first time the major was played somewhere other than Mission Hills Country Club in California, where the winning golfers maintained a long-standing tradition of jumping into Poppie’s Pond to celebrate.
But despite the move, Vu maintained the tradition by leaping into the lake next to the 18th green.
She fired a four-under 68 in her final round – the joint-lowest score of the day – to set the clubhouse lead. England’s Georgia Hall also shot a final round of 68, as did world No 3 Jin Young Ko, but they finished five under and seven under, respectively.
Yin, who was co-leader overnight with Allisen Corpuz, was 11 under for the tournament through 15 holes to hold a one-shot lead with three to play, but back-to-back bogeys followed at 16 and 17 after finding bunkers in each hole.
Yin recovered well at the 18th, birdieing the last to finish off an even-par round of 72 and force a playoff after tying Vu at 10 under.
Yin could not repeat the job when replaying the hole minutes later as part of the playoff, hitting her second shot into the water, which opened the door for Vu to wrap up a memorable victory with her birdie putt.
“I can’t even put into words what I was feeling,” Vu said after the win. “I was nervous, I was scared, I was cold.
“I just wanted to hit the putt and be done with it.
“Everything happens for a reason… I don’t know how I pulled this out, but I’m just really happy!”
Vu also kept the memory of her late grandfather in mind who fled his native Vietnam with his wife and children and died early on during the Covid pandemic, to keep herself going.
“The past two days, I was very angry. I didn’t feel like myself,” added Vu.
“I just felt like I was getting angry over every single little thing, and that’s usually not how I roll.
“Today, I was getting really upset on the course, and I just had to remind me, like grandpa is with you, and he’d be really disappointed if you were getting upset like this and that you didn’t get your act together..
“I was just in such a bad place with my golf game. Just everything was life or death. I just saw everybody that I’ve competed with being successful, and I just compared myself all the time,” said Vu.
“But now I know that everybody’s journey is different.”
Elsewhere, world No 2 Nelly Korda sank a long eagle putt on the 18th to shoot a 71 and finish third on 9-under, while Corpuz’s challenge faded with a final-round 74 to drop her into a tie for fourth at eight under along with Thailand’s Atthaya Thitikul, Switzerland’s Albane Valenzuela and South Koreans A Lim Kim and Amy Yang.
