Round 4 - In-Kyung Kim wins Marathon Classic

July 23, 2017

In-Kyung Kim has won the Marathon Classic presented by Owens Corning and O-I, her second win this year after the ShopRite LPGA Classic presented by ACER in June.

Kim fired the best round of the day at 8-under 63 to tie for low round of the tournament and take a four-shot victory over Lexi Thompson with a closing 21-under 263.

“I think today the pin positions were a little bit comfortable for me,” she said of the key to her sizzling finish. “I've been hitting little draws this week, and when the pin is tucked on the left side, I was having a hard time, but I think just knowing what I'm doing kind of helped me to plan out the round.”

Thompson's runner-up position is her fifth second-place finish of the year, she also won the Kingsmill Championship presented by JTBC.

“I put up a good score. I had a little bit of a rough stretch there… but overall I'm very happy with the way I played,” said Thompson. “I was hitting a cut around the golf course, and that's usually not what I do. But I managed to put up some good scores, which I'm very happy about.”

Gerina Piller who led after 36 holes finished tied for third place with Peiyun Chien at 15-under, their best finish of the year.

“I feel like my game, I played really well. To start off 8-under, that's huge. But I didn't come away with the win, but it doesn't mean I didn't have a winning performance,” said Piller.

Chien was very proud of her game this week.

“Very proud because a lot of Taiwanese… a lot of Taiwan fans really care about this tournament, and I played well,” she stated.

Click here for full scores & prize money.

Round 3 - Rookie Korda takes 2-shot lead heading into final

July 22, 2017

Rookie Nelly Korda is heading into the final of the Marathon Classic presented by Owens Corning and O-I with a two shot lead over In-Kyung Kim after a third round 5-under 66 that pur her at 15-under.

“I've learned a lot my rookie year out here,” explained Korda. “It's definitely a key to stay patient and really to take it shot by shot. I've been in a couple positions where I've been on top of the leaderboard, and I just really got ahead of myself, started thinking too far ahead, and I just told myself I need to calm down really, take it shot by shot and stay calm, breathe a little bit more and just stay calm.”

Korda will have to contend with a tight pack players trailing close behind with Kim at 13-under and a further 6 players at 12-under including 36-hole leader Gerina Piller and Sung Hyun Park (US Women's Open).

Round 2 - Piller keeps lead 1 ahead of four players

July 21, 2017

Gerina Piller played a solid round of 68 on Friday to get to 11-under and hold on to her lead one shot ahead of Nelly Korda, Lexi Thompson, In-Kyung Kim and Peiyun Chien.

“I feel like I was pretty steady. I kind of had a par streak going there. But I gave myself chances for birdie, and at that point, you've just got to be patient, and there's some birdie holes out there. I stayed patient, not one on my front nine and then reeled off three in a row on the back. It is difficult, but if you can just kind of plug along and hit fairways and greens and keep it simple, that's what I feel,” said Piller. “It's tough to follow up an 8-under. The conditions were great out there. The course is in great shape. I got off to a slow start, just made some pars, but I was giving myself chances, and that's kind of all you can ask for.”

This is the first time Piller has held a 36-hole lead on the Tour.

“I felt like I played great. You know, I missed some birdie opportunities, but I made some longer putts today. Ball-striking feels great. Putting feels great. It was just a matter of staying patient and just letting the results come,” she explained.

Round 1 - Piller takes opening lead in Marathon Classic

July 20, 2017

Gerina Piller has taken the opening lead in the Marathon Classic presented by Owens Corning and O-I with an 8-under 63 that included nine birdies and a single bogey.

“I birdied my first three holes and any time you can start off three in a row, it's pretty good,” said Piller. “I just kept hitting it close and had some close birdie putts here and there, and I did make a bogey, but I just told myself like I'm doing great things and just keep doing what I'm doing.”

Piller's best finish so far this season was solo fourth at the Pure Silk Bahamas LPGA Classic, she has also had fourth other top-15 finishes.

One shot behind Piller are last week's U.S. Women's Open winner Sung Hyun Park and Peiyun Chien. Park has not missed a single cut this season and has had five top-5 finishes.

“My feeling today was so awesome,” said Park. “It was a good start after the major championship winning, and first of all, I need to focus more on the Marathon Classic and want to keep my (major) happiness behind (me) from now on.

Chien is also a rookie but has only made six cuts this year. Her 7-under 64 on Thursday only had one bogey and was her best round of the season.

“I did well today because I changed my playing. I'm always thinking the swing on the golf course, so today I just played freely,” said Chien. “I tried to find some feeling and play, and it's worked. I'm very happy.”

Scores

Rookie roundup

This week, fans in Sylvania, Ohio, will get to see 30 of the 37 2017 LPGA rookies tee it up. The rookie core is led by recently crowned U.S. Women’s Open champion Sung Hyun Park, who also leads the Louise Suggs Rolex Rookie of the Year race. In 2014, Lydia Ko took home the Marathon Classic title and a few months later was crowned the Louise Suggs Rolex Rookie of the Year (youngest winner ever).

NCAA Champs make Maration Classic debuts

Arizona State teammates Linnea Strom and Monica Vaughn are teeing it up this week at the Marathon Classic after their performances at the NCAA Women’s Division I Golf Championship earned them both sponsor exemptions.

Vaughn, the NCAA individual champion, is making her first LPGA Tour start and her first start as a professional, and the thought of her debut has her anxious for the first round.

“The mix of the two brings a lot of nerves but good nerves,” Vaughn said. “Productive nerves, learning curve nerves. I’ve learned a lot out here. I’m really gaining a lot of knowledge off what it’s like to be a Tour player, and those nerves have got me through the NCAA championship, so I hope they can carry me this week.”

For winning the NCAA title, Sun Devils coach Missy Farr-Kaye got to select a member of her team to represent ASU at the Marathon Classic, selecting All-American first-teamer Strom. The native of Sweden is playing in her first LPGA event since she qualified for the 2015 Ricoh Women’s British Open, and while she missed the cut there, she’s hopeful that experience will bode well for her this week.

“I think that helped me coming here,” Strom said of the Women’s British Open. “It’s new for everything and it’s a new environment for me, and there’s a lot of things going on. There are all the best players in the world playing, and there’s just a lot of new things going on that we are not used to. So I think every opportunity we get to play at this level of golf with those players is going to help us very much for the future.”

Leona Maguire, the No. 1 amateur in the World Amateur Golf Ranking, joins Strom and Vaughn as the three sponsor invites this week. Maguire was the runner up for the 2017 NCAA individual title, and she has also received the ANNIKA National Collegiate Player of the Year award the past two years.

Quotable

“I think when you’ve had 17 or 18 different winners in the last 19 events or something, it’s kind of crazy to think that, but it just shows that the amount of talent on the LPGA and not only these certain amounts of players are going to win, you just never know who could be holding the trophy at the end of the week.”

- Lydia Ko on how hard it is to win on the LPGA right now

“That’s one thing I said, I said, I think I got an invite into an LPGA tournament. This is my first event that I’ve ever played as a professional. This is the first professional event I’ve ever played in. It was huge for me, and that was the first thing on my mind kind of when I won.”

- Monica Vaughn on realizing she got a sponsors invite immediately after winning NCAAs

“I was just talking to Bronte Law on the putting green, and a year ago we played with her in college, and I played with her a lot back in Europe, back at home for like five, six years now, and she has told me like, hey, there is no difference, like it’s you and your golf bag, you’ve just got to go out and play golf. It’s so true, but at the same time like all the players that are here, they have more experience. They are better golf pros. So I’m just going to learn from everybody and try to have fun and enjoy.”

- Linnea Strom on advice she’s gotten from 2017 LPGA rookie Bronte Law

QUICK HITS

In four starts at the Marathon Classic, Lydia Ko has two wins and two additional top-seven finishes.

This season, Ko’s best finish is a runner-up finish at the LOTTE Championship Presented by HERSHEY.

Ko has finished inside the top 10 seven times in 14 starts this season.

Se Ri Pak is the only back-to-back winner of this event; she won in 1998 and 1999.

The last player to successfully defend an LPGA title was Brooke Henderson, who won the Cambia Portland Classic in 2015 and 2016.

Six LPGA members attended Arizona State University, including Giulia Molinaro and Azahara Muñoz who are both here this week. At ASU, Munoz was the 2008 NCAA individual national champion, and she also led the Sun Devils to the team national championship in 2009.

The last time an amateur won was Lydia Ko at the 2013 CN Canadian Women’s Open.

The last time a non-LPGA member won was Sun-Ju Ahn at the 2015 TOTO JAPAN CLASSIC.