After tying for second in the inaugural Lotte Championship, Azahara Muñoz couldn’t break the top 20 in her next four visits to Ko Olina.
She dropped well off the radar with a 74 to open this year’s tournament and was 10 shots behind leader Brooke Henderson after the second round.
The Spaniard crept up the leaderboard with a 69 on Friday, placing her in the sixth-to-last group on Saturday, then surged with a bogey-free final round and moved into a tie for second at 8 under with a birdie at No. 14, her fifth of the day.
A sand save from the back bunker on No. 18 capped a round of 5-under 67, her second-best round out of 24 at Ko Olina, and she was in third when she signed her scorecard. She wound up alone in second in her first top-10 finish since the 2016 Sime Darby LPGA Malaysia.
“Played amazing. To be honest, it’s the best ball-striking I’ve had since I can’t remember,” Muñoz said.
“So my caddie and I found something at the beginning of the week and it’s really been working. I could have made a few more putts, but the greens are tricky with the wind and they’re quite grainy. … So I couldn’t complain. I played really well. Especially today.”
Still no two-time champions
Winning the Lotte Championship hasn’t exactly equated to future success at Ko Olina.
Ai Miyazato won the inaugural title in 2012 and came the closest to a repeat when she tied for sixth the following year. Sei Young Kim tied for seventh in 2016, a year after she holed out an eagle from the fairway to win a playoff with Inbee Park.
Michelle Wie tied for 11th after winning in 2014 and posted the highest finish (T-11th) among the four past champions in this year’s field at 3 under.
Defending champion Cristie Kerr’s hopes of becoming the first two-time winner all but evaporated with a 75 on Thursday. She closed with a 74 to finish at 4 over for the tournament. Kim tied for ninth, and 2016 winner Minjee Lee tied for 50th.
Park falls just short of No. 1
South Korea’s Inbee Park had a chance to track down Shanshan Feng as the world No. 1 player this week, but a bogey at the last did her in.
Feng will start her 23rd consecutive week as the world’s best on Monday as Park continues her quest to regain the top world ranking in women’s golf. Park needed to win or finish alone in second to regain the throne. She did neither.
Park came to the 18th hole tied for second and in need of a birdie. She missed a par putt of 5 feet to drop her into a tie for third with current No. 1 Feng and former No. 1 Ariya Jutanugarn, who became the second-youngest to reach that peak when dethroning Lydia Ko last June.
“I’m not really worried about it,” Feng said. “I figure if I keep winning or playing well, I’ll stay up there. If somebody passes me, then I’ll be close enough to pass them later on if I keep playing well.”
Inside the numbers
With the tough conditions lingering for another day, the scoring remained high. The average on Saturday was a 73.28. The four-day average was 73.50.
For four straight days, the most difficult was the par-4 18th. The average on Saturday was 4.38 with a four-day average of 4.47. On Saturday there were nine birdies, 36 pars, 23 bogeys, four doubles and two of 3-plus or more.
The easiest hole was the par-5 fifth with a Saturday average of 4.58. There was one eagle, 38 birdies, 28 pars, five bogeys and two doubles.
