Lindy Duncan was victorious for the first time on the LPGA Tour when she won The Annika on Sunday.
She’d never even had a share of an LPGA lead LPGA until Friday at Pelican Golf Club but two key birdies saw her pull away from Hye-Jin Choi and finish two strokes ahead as she shot a 67 in round four to close at 16 under par.
It took her 222 starts and more than 10 years on the tour to get this win.
“To be here, I’m just completely shocked,” Duncan said afterwards. “I just put so much pressure on myself because I really want to do well and the competition is so great out here.
“Sometimes you just over-try and I think I’ve done that a lot. This week I just finally let that go a little bit.
“Just keep going. You never know when it’s going to turn around for you. Momentum is such a strange thing. You keep working on the right things and anything’s possible.”
Lindy Duncan pumps her fist after making a birdie putt on the third hole. (AP Photo/Chris O’Meara)
Duncan tapped in a four-foot par putt on the final hole, and a long line of LPGA players waited to douse water on her to share in her celebration.
Duncan, 35, is the oldest first-time winner on the LPGA since Leta Lindley who was 36 when she won the Corning Classic in 2008.
On Sunday she had fallen two shots behind when Choi birdied the 11th.
But Choi had a three-putt bogey from 50 feet at the front of the green on the 13th, and two holes later the South Korean had to scramble for bogey to fall into a tie.
Duncan took over from there with two shots she won’t soon forget. Her approach to the 16th was well right of the pin and went up the back slope, narrowly missing a sprinkler head and rolling back down a slope to six feet for birdie and a one-shot lead.
Hye-Jin Choi is still winless on the LPGA. (AP Photo/Chris O’Meara)
She drove into a bunker on the 17th and faced a shot to a pin just beyond a deep bunker. It came out beautifully to 20 feet and Duncan holed that birdie and took a two-shot lead.
Choi had to settle for her third runner-up finish in her last three tournaments. Choi has gone 127 starts on the LPGA without winning.
Haeran Ryu and Yuri Yoshida tied for third. Julia Lopez Ramirez finished fifth.
Nelly Korda, playing for the first time in two months, closed with a 67 and finished seventh, six shots behind. Korda needs one more win to qualify for the LPGA Hall of Fame, her next chance coming in the season finale in Naples.
England’s Lottie Woad finished tied in ninth place at eight under par.
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