Two days. Two records. Two championship comebacks for Cristie Kerr.
A day after matching the Lotte Championship’s single-day record, Kerr tore through Ko Olina Golf Club again on Saturday to set a tournament scoring mark while overcoming a five-shot deficit to claim her 19th career victory in her 20th year on the LPGA Tour.
Kerr followed her 10-under 62 on Friday with a bogey-free round of 6-under 66 to rally past Su-Yeon Jang and capture the title at a tournament-record 20 under par.
After a double-bogey to start her round on Thursday, Kerr went without another square on her scorecard over the last 53 holes and played her final 43 at 21 under par to pick up her first win since the CME Group Tour Championship to close the 2015 season.
“I wasn’t playing too well, and then I just found something and was able to turn it on and just kept going,” Kerr said. “I can’t remember a 21⁄2 days that … I had made so many birdies in my life. It’s unbelievable.”
Kerr trailed Jang by three shots to begin the day and was five back with 14 holes to play. Her charge to the title on Saturday was part of a larger comeback after having knee surgery last November.
Following the surgery, a cyst ruptured in her knee, keeping her on crutches for three weeks rather than the four or five days initially projected. She went eight weeks without swinging a club, missed the season opener and a cut in mid-March.
But top-10 finishes at the Kia Classic and ANA Inspiration sent her to Hawaii with a sense that a breakthrough was on the way.
“I played great the last couple weeks coming into here, and I just have a different perspective on life now,” Kerr said. “I felt it on the golf course today. I was able to keep going forward because I didn’t put that extra pressure on myself.
“Yeah, you always feel tension, you feel pressure, you feel nerves, but I was enjoying being in the moment and relishing the fact that I had the opportunity to go forward.”
Although Jang threatened to pull away early on Saturday, Kerr stayed steady and pounced when the leader stumbled before the turn.
The tournament’s final pairing went into the par-5 14th hole tied at 18 under, with Kerr taking the lead for good with her fifth birdie of the round while Jang bogeyed to fall two shots back.
Kerr birdied No. 15 for the third time this week to open a three-shot cushion, which she protected with three pars to finish the round.
“I knew if I was going to have a chance to win this tournament … I had to zone everything out and really just be really selfish with my golf and what I was doing,” Kerr said of the duel with Jang.
“It doesn’t really do you any good to worry about anybody else. It’s so easy to focus on everybody else, but when you’re doing that you’re not focusing on yourself. I feel like if I didn’t do that I wouldn’t have played as well. This is the place that I play well from, and even having won I’m going to learn a lot from this week.”
Jang, playing on a sponsor’s exemption, made her fourth LPGA Tour start and earned a spot in the tournament’s final pairing for the second straight year. She birdied two of her first three holes on Saturday, but wobbled before the turn and couldn’t quite keep pace with Kerr on the back nine.
The 22-year-old settled for an even-par 72 to finish tied for second with world No. 1 Lydia Ko and fourth-ranked In Gee Chun at 17 under.
Jang shot a 71 in the final round last year to finish fifth and appeared to have shaken off those nerves early in the round.
Her bogey-free run ended on her 60th hole of the tournament, but she was still two shots ahead going into the par-3 eighth. She flubbed a chip from below the green, then hurried through her next attempt, sending it well past the pin. The race was on when a two-putt for double bogey and Kerr’s par suddenly left them tied at 16 under.
Kerr played Ko Olina’s back nine at 11 under the last two days and by the time they reached Ko Olina’s challenging 18th hole — the site of playoffs two of the previous four years — she had taken much of the drama out of the finish. Her four-day total of 268 was one lower than Suzann Pettersen’s previous record set in 2013, and her three-shot margin of victory was the second widest in the tournament’s six years, trailing only Ai Miyazato’s four-shot win in the inaugural event in 2012.
Alena Sharp began the day tied with Kerr for second place and was briefly tied for the lead midway through the day. But the Canadian’s quest for her first LPGA win continued after a 2-under 70 left her in fifth place at 16 under.
Ko tied for the low round of the day with an 8-under 64 and maintained her hold on the top spot in the Rolex World Golf Rankings. Michelle Wie finished her week back home with a 4-under 68 to close at 6 under for the tournament and tied for 39th.
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