AFTER recording eight top-10 finishes in her last 18 LPGA Tour starts, Haeran Ryu of South Korea earned her second tour victory at the inaugural US$3.8 million FM Championship.
The 23-year-old Ryu won in dramatic fashion at TPC Boston, edging compatriot Jin Young Ko in a playoff after making par on the first extra hole to Ko’s bogey.
Entering the third round, Ryu had a six-shot lead over her closest competitors. However, a sixover-par 78 bumped her down into a tie for sixth place, four shots back of 54-hole leader Ko.
“After the third round, I called my coach and said my ball is going other ways except to the pin, and my ball is not going right to left. He said, your original ball is a fade, so tomorrow you just miss it to the right and just keep to the right side is fine,” said Ryu.
Ryu knew she needed a strong start on Sunday to have a chance of winning. Playing two groups ahead of the leaders, she made four consecutive birdies in her first four holes and picked up two more on six and eight to make the turn at 13-under-par overall.
Two more birdies on holes 10 and 12 moved Ryu to 15-under-par and gave her the solo lead.
She extended her advantage with another birdie on the par-four 15th hole, but a bogey on the par-three 16th dropped her back to 15-under-par and a share of the lead with Ko. Ryu parred the last two holes for a closing 64 and post the clubhouse target of 15-under-par.
At the par-five 18th hole, Ko had a birdie putt inside 15 feet for a round of 67 and the outright win, but it slipped past the hole to force the playoff.
The protagonists returned to the 18th tee, and both laid up their second shots to set up short approaches to the green. Ryu played first and got to within 15 feet of the pin, while Ko sent her shot long and to the left of the green, a spot that had plagued players throughout the tournament. After Ko failed to get up and down for par, Ryu knocked her birdie putt just past the hole and tapped in for par to win her first LPGA Tour playoff.
The US$570,000 winner’s cheque took Ryu past the US$3.5 million mark in career earnings. This was her first win on the LPGA Tour since the 2023 Walmart NW Arkansas Championship presented by P&G last October. That win, along with five top-10 finishes, helped her claim the Louise Suggs Rolex Rookie of the Year award.
“Second win is hard for me because this year I got many chances before, but I miss it. Today, I don’t want to miss again. I was so nervous in the playoff, but maybe Jin Young Ko is same as me. I think just thank God. I can’t believe it here now,” said Ryu, who earned LPGA Tour status for 2023 after taking medallist honours at the 2022 Final Qualifying.
Ko meanwhile notched her seventh top-10 finish of the 2024 season with her runner-up showing at TPC Boston, which is also the 59th top-10 finish of her career. After a disappointing missed cut in the previous event, the 15-time LPGA Tour winner was proud of her strong play despite the result.
“My confidence was really low after last week. But who knows? I missed the cut last week, now I finished second, almost won. I will take a lot of good positive things from this week in Boston,” said Ko.
China’s Ruixin Liu carded successive 64s over the weekend to storm into third place on 14- under-par, one shot ahead of American Allisen Corpuz and Thailand’s Jeeno Thitikul.
With a successful first year, the FM Championship will return to TPC Boston in 2025. Established nearly two centuries ago, FM is a leading mutual insurance company whose capital, scientific research capability and engineering expertise are solely dedicated to property risk management and the resilience of its policyholder-owners.
The 2024 FM Championship marked FM’s first foray into sports sponsorship. The company immediately made its mark on women’s sports with the total payout of US$3.8 million, the largest non-major, non-tour championship purse on the LPGA Tour. In addition to offering complimentary hotel accommodation to athletes, FM also provided a US$1,000 stipend to athletes who missed the cut.
The LPGA Tour takes a break this week and returns with the 2024 Solheim Cup at Robert Trent Jones Golf Club in Gainesville, Virginia, on September 13-15.
