China’s Shanshan Feng shot a 4-under (68) to win her seventh LPGA tournament and third in the United States at Sunday’s finale of the Volvik Championship.
After Saturday’s round, there were many notable names bunched up at the top of the leaderboard entering the final round of the Volvik Championship. Feng entered Sunday’s round at 15-under par but with a 1 shot lead of Lizette Salas and 2 shots ahead of Suzann Petersen; and another eleven players within 5 shots of the lead.
LPGA tournament staff made an executive decision on Saturday night to move up tee times, move to threesomes and go off split tees to avoid severe weather that was expected to hit Ann Arbor on Sunday afternoon. It was a decision that seemed to play out well for not only the final round of the Volvik Championship, but also for all the fans who showed up on Sunday for the tournament.
The last four groups on the course had the leaders displaced between them on the course, which doesn’t make it easy for the leaders to know what their competitors are doing on the course.
“Not really. I have a habit that I don’t look at the leaderboards until Sunday night, so I actually don’t really know where I’m at and I don’t really know what the others are doing,” Feng said. “But I’m feeling good about my condition right now and what I’ve done the first three days, so looking forward to the final day.”
Two groups ahead of Feng, Minjee Lee would find herself with 6 birdies and 1 bogey on the front nine to trail Feng by 3 shots.
As the leaders were making the turn, Jessica Korda – who barely made the cut after Friday’s round – found herself just 9 shots out of the lead entering the final round. Korda would shoot a 7-under (65) on Sunday with two bogeys.
After the round she was asked if she knew what she shot.
“Honestly, I’m so far back that I was just trying to have a good weekend, like I barely made the cut,” she said. “I was just trying to go as low as I could and be aggressive, and sometimes that pays off and sometimes it doesn’t. These last two rounds it definitely paid off for me, so can’t complain.”
Feng would have 2 birdies and 2 bogeys on the back nine, which included bogeying 18 to win the Volvik Championship over Minjee Lee by a shot. Feng teed off on her final hole with 2 shot lead over Lee. Minjee would only have 2 birdies on the back nine and fell 1 shot away from forcing a playoff with Feng.
After her round, Minjee Lee talked about her week at the Volvik Championship.
“Yeah, I’m pretty happy with my result,” Lee said. “Obviously I’m going to come up a little bit short, but still, yeah, I hit it pretty solid all week and I putted pretty well all week, so no, I’m happy with my result.”
Feng would take home a winner’s check of $195,000 and a unique trophy given to the winner of the Volvik Championship. The LPGA heads to the Shoprite LPGA Classic in Galloway, NJ where Anna Nordquist is the defending champion.
