Lilia Vu picked up her fifth LPGA Tour title with a playoff victory on Sunday at the US$3 million Meijer LPGA Classic for Simply Give, her first start since The Ford Championship in March.
Making her comeback from a back injury, the American started the final round at Blythefield Country Club in a tie for eighth, eight shots adrift of 54-hole leader Grace Kim of Australia. Vu showed no signs of competitive rust as she signed in a flawless seven-under-par 65, setting the clubhouse target of 16-under-par 272.
Kim, who started the day with a five-shot lead, finished with a one-over-par 73 to tie Vu at the top.
American star Lexi Thompson, who just two weeks ago had announced her impending retirement at the end of this season, matched that total with a solid closing 68. She had narrowly missed an eagle chip at the par-five 18th hole, which would have earned her a 12th LPGA Tour title had it gone in.
The three-way playoff saw Vu, Kim and Thompson birdie the 18th hole twice before the decider moved to the par-five 4th hole. All three players wound up having birdie looks, with Vu splashing out her third shot from a greenside bunker to roughly five feet. After Kim and Thompson missed the cup by inches, Vu found the bottom of the cup to capture her first win since the 2023 ANNIKA driven by Gainbridge at Pelican. .
“I wasn’t thinking about winning. I was thinking about shooting eight-under-par to make top 10,” said Vu. “I feel like it can get scorable out here, but I think it’s my kind of delusional mind where I’m, like, okay everybody is probably making a million birdies. I was just on my own journey.
“Obviously, coming back from an injury, I was a little up in the air not knowing my swing and felt like I didn’t know where my arms were if I wasn’t tight. I was just trying to make contact today. That’s it,” added the 26-year-old, who has two Major victories to her name.
The eight-shot comeback is the largest this season, beating the previous mark of seven set by Linnea Strom at last week’s ShopRite LPGA Classic.
Vu won four times last season, including her two Majors at the Chevron Championship and the AIG Women’s Open, and was the LPGA Tour’s Rolex Player of the Year. She was ranked number one in the Rolex Women’s World Golf Rankings for the most part of the second half of 2023, and is currently in second place behind runaway number one Nelly Korda who missed the cut at Blythefield.
American Ally Ewing finished solo fourth on 15-under-par, one shot ahead of compatriot Allisen Corpuz and Korean Narin An.
There was some cheer for Malaysia’s Kelly Tan, who made her first cut of the season following rounds of 68 and 72. Weekend scores of 74 and 75 saw the 30-year-old settle for tied 73rd position on one over-par 289, which was worth a cheque for US$5,625.
