Korean player Daniel Kang (USA) won the Hilton Grand Vacations Tournament of Champions ($1.5 million in total prize money) in the opening match of the 2022 season of the LPGA Tour.
Daniel Kang hit a 4-under 68 with six birdies and two bogeys in the fourth round on the last day of the tournament held at the Lake Nona Golf and Country Club (par 72, 6,617 yards) in Orlando, Florida, USA on the 24th (Korean time). .
Daniel Kang, who recorded a final total of 16-under 272, beat second-placed Brook Henderson (Canada) by three strokes and harvested his sixth win on the tour. The prize money for winning this competition is 225,000 dollars (about 260 million won).
Daniel Kang returned to the top of the tour event after a year and five months since the Marathon Classic in August 2020.
Park In-bee (34) finished the tournament tied for 8th with a final total of 7-under 281.
World No. 1 Nelly Corda (USA), who led the world by one stroke until the third round, lost three strokes that day and was pushed down to a tie for fourth place by a 10-under 278 stroke.
Daniel Kang won the championship by brushing off the regret of losing the overtime match in the opening match last year, just a year ago.
Daniel Kang took the lead throughout the tournament in the opening game of last season, but allowed Jessica Corda (USA) a tie on the 16th hole of the 4th round, ending the tournament in 2nd place after extra time.
In the 18th hole (par 3) overtime, Daniel Kang hit the ball closer than Coda, but eventually gave up the trophy to Koda, who caught a 9m birdie.
However, this year, until the third round, they started the last round in second place, one shot behind Nelly Koda, the brother of last year’s champion Koda, and climbed to the top with a comeback victory.
Coda, who was leading by one stroke until the third round, lost two shots to the 10th hole (par 4) and was pushed out of the competition for the championship, while Daniel Kang and Gaby López (Mexico), who were tied for second until the third round, competed for the championship.
Lopez first hit the 5th and 7th holes with three birdies in a row, but after that, he could not reduce the number of strokes, and Daniel Kang pursued with birdies on the 9th and 11th holes.
Daniel Kang made three consecutive birdies on the 13th, 14th, and 15th holes and jumped to the top in an instant, while Lopez lost at bats to bogey on the 13th and 15th, and the gap between the two widened to four strokes.
On the 16th hole (par 4), he faced a crisis of leaving about 5m of bogey putts, but he managed to save it with a bogey. Even at this time, the gap with second place was 4 strokes, so it lost one stroke, but still maintained a three stroke difference.
In the celebrity category, a ‘gender showdown’ was held between former Major League pitcher Derek Law (USA) and ‘golf empress’ Annika Sorenstam (Sweden) in overtime.
On the first hole of extra time, Law put a par putt of about 7m, and Sorenstam had a shorter putt slightly off to the right, so the winner was decided.
