Yang Hee-young 4th Place... "Regrettable, Comeback Victory"

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Yang Hee-young made it into the ‘Top 5’.

On the 12th (local time), at the Pelican Golf Club (par 70, 6,268 yards) in Belleair, Florida, USA, Yang finished 4th (15 under par 265) in the final round of the LPGA Tour’s The Annika Driven By Gainbridge at Pelican (total prize money $3.25 million). This marks her fourth top-5 finish of the season since tying for 4th at the major AIG Women’s Open last August.

Yang Hee-young is teeing off at the 11th hole of the 4th round at the Annika Driven by Gainbridge at Pelican. [Bel Air, USA=AFP·Yonhap News]

Starting the day tied for 2nd place, three strokes behind the leader, Yang exchanged two birdies for two bogeys. She gained momentum with birdies on holes 1 and 4, continuing her pursuit of the title. However, a bogey on the 10th hole (par 4) slowed her down, and a tee shot mistake on the 15th hole (par 3), where she was just one stroke behind in 2nd place, cost her another stroke. Meanwhile, Lilia Vu (USA) made a birdie on that hole, quickly extending the gap to three strokes. Yang’s impressive average driving distance of 287 yards stood out, but she was hampered by 32 putts.

Yang Hee-young, ranked 39th in the world, is a veteran who debuted on the LPGA Tour in 2008. Notably, three of her four career wins came at the Honda LPGA Thailand. In the third round of this tournament, she showed remarkable resilience by shooting 9 under par, with a perfect performance including one eagle and seven birdies. She hoped to claim her fifth career victory, her first in four years and nine months since winning the Honda LPGA Thailand in February 2019, but fell just short in the final stretch.

World No. 2 Lilia Vu shot 4 under par to secure a three-stroke victory (19 under par 261). This was her fourth win of the season, three months after the AIG Women’s Open, earning $487,500 (approximately 640 million KRW) in prize money. Alison Lee (USA) and Azahara Mu?oz (Spain) tied for 2nd place (16 under par 264). Emily Kristine Pedersen (Denmark), who led the previous day, lost four strokes and dropped to a tie for 5th place (14 under par 266).

World No. 1 Lin Xiyu (China) and Lexi Thompson (USA) tied for 7th place (13 under par 267), Rookie of the Year Yu Hae-ran tied for 12th (12 under par 268), and Jeon Ji-in finished tied for 19th (10 under par 270). Defending champion Nelly Korda (USA) tied for 25th (8 under par 272), while Ko Jin-young, Lee Jeong-eun 5, and Lydia Ko (New Zealand) tied for 31st (7 under par 273).

This content was produced with the assistance of AI translation services.