May 02-05
Lake Merced Golf Club, Daly City, California
$1,800,000
Round 1, Round 2, Round 3

Bronte Law stormed through the pack with a final round of 65 but missed out on the Mediheal Championship title as Sei Young Kim took a playoff win.

Law started the day in 20th and 10 shots off the pace in California but hit a trio of birdies on the 10th, 11th and 12th to move to five-under for the round and then an eagle at the par-5 15th saw her move to top spot.

South Korean Kim had a torrid final round, carding a three-over 75 to finish on seven-under, alongside compatriot Jeongeun Lee.

Law, Kim and Lee headed to the first for a play-off hole, where Law had made par throughout the tournament.

But bogeys for both Lee and Law saw Kim take the title, her seventh career win.

“Ultimately, waiting around that long is tough, to even get back into the mindset of, like, okay, I got to go out and play again,” said Law, who relaxed in player dining with friends before hitting the practice area when Jeongeun Lee6 tied her lead. “But, like, that's part of the job. And it's my first time in an LPGA playoff. So next time it happens, maybe I will learn from this experience.”

Law's second-place finish is the best result of her three-year LPGA Tour career. Prior to today, her best finish was sixth at the 2018 Thornberry LPGA Creek Classic and the 2018 Pure Silk-Bahamas LPGA Classic.

2019 LPGA rookie Jeongeun Lee6 is a seven-time winner on the KLPGA but found herself in unfamiliar territory on Sunday. Lee6 played her final four holes four-under par to make her way into her first career LPGA playoff. 

While she didn't come out on top, Lee6 took it as a learning experience and was happy with her performance.

“[I] just wanted to play -- just have fun with the playoff, and [I'm] pretty satisfied with it.”

In seven starts on the LPGA Tour in 2019, Lee6 has finished no worse than T16 and has collected three top-10 finishes including a career-best runner-up finish Sunday at the LPGA Mediheal Championship. Lee6 currently leads the Louise Suggs Rolex Rookie of the Year standings.

England's Charley Hull finished tied for fourth, two shots off the pace.

CME Group Cares Challenge– Score 1 for St. Jude

The CME Group Cares Challenge is a season-long charitable giving program that turns aces into donations. CME Group will donate $20,000 for each hole-in-one made on the LPGA Tour in 2019, with a minimum guaranteed donation of $500,000 to St. Jude Children's Research Hospital, which is leading the way the world understands, treats and defeats childhood cancer and other life-threatening diseases.

There were no aces made at this week's LPGA MEDIHEAL Championship. The season has seen nine aces, for a total of $180,000 been donated thus far in 2019. This is enough to cover half of the treatment for a pediatric patient battling lymphoblastic leukemia (ALL), the most common form of childhood cancer.

Leaders Top 10 Competition

The LEADERS Top 10 competition awards a $100,000 bonus to the LPGA player with the most top-10 finishes through the completion of the event held immediately prior to the CME Group Tour Championship. In the event of a tie in total top-10 finishes, the award will go to the player with the most official wins, followed by most second-place finishes, third-place finishes, etc., until the tie is broken.

Jin Young Ko and Nelly Korda continue to lead with six top-10 finishes on the season, but with top-10 finishes at the LPGA MEDIHEAL Championship on Sunday Eun-Hee Ji (T4), Minjee Lee (T8) and Azahara Munoz (T8) all move into a tie for second with five top-10s on the season.

Race to the CME Globe

With her win, Kim earns 500 points and is projected to move from 21st to sixth in the Race to the CME Globe with 975 points.

Player Notes

Rolex Rankings No. 15 Sei Young Kim (72-66-68-75)

Kim is now 4-0 in LPGA Tour playoffs

With her eighth career victory, Kim ties Mi Hyun Kim for the fifth most wins by a Korean player in LPGA history; only Se Ri Pak (25), Inbee Park (19), Jiyai Shin (11) and Na Yeon Choi (9) have more wins

Kim's final-round 75 is the highest final-round score by any 2019 LPGA Tour winner

She hit eight of 14 fairways and 11 of 18 greens

Kim is in her fifth season on the LPGA Tour; at the 2018 Thornberry Creek LPGA Classic, she set the LPGA's 72-hole scoring record at 31-under 257

With her win, Kim earns $270,000; she has earned $489,346 this season and $6,402,923 for her career

This is Kim's eighth event of the 2019 LPGA Tour season; she finished second at last week's HUGEL-AIR PREMIA LA Open

At the inaugural LPGA MEDIHEAL Championship in 2018, she finished T37

At the 2015 Swinging Skirts LPGA Classic, a separate LPGA event held at Lake Merced Golf Club, Kim finished T9

Kim represented the Republic of Korea at the 2016 Summer Olympics in Brazil, where she finished T25

She was the 2015 Louise Suggs Rolex Rookie of the Year