LPGA Tour rookie Hae Ran Ryu made her first bogeys of the tournament at the par-5 2nd and the par-4 5th as well as five birdies and an eagle at the par-5 14th to close with a 66 for a 19-under, 194 total for a wire-to-wire victory at the Walmart NW Arkansas Championship.
She becomes the 11th Rolex First-Time Winner and the fifth rookie to win this season. The five-time KLPGA winner had recorded five previous top-10 finishes since the start of 2023. She is the first rookie to win wire-to-wire since Patty Tavatanakit at the 2021 Chevron Championship.
“To be honest, I had some doubts whether I can win this year, but I trusted in my shots and kept playing, and I think that led to a good result,” she said. “In Korea it’s pretty early morning. I know when I was playing it was like even earlier in the morning, but with my parents and the fan clubs I think they were cheering me on and supporting me. I think thanks to them I was able to get it done this today and this week.”
Sweden’s Linnea Strom recorded an eagle of her own as well as five birdies for a bogey-free 64 to finish runner-up at 16-under.
Four players tied for third place at 15-under including fellow rookie Yuna Nishimura of Japan, who recorded her first top-10 finish of her career, and Bianca Pagdanganan of the Phillipines who carded two eagles and five birdies to propel herself up the leaderboard and earn her second top-10 finish of the season.
“Definitely a confidence booster,” Pagdanganan said about her play this weekend. “I feel like I’ve been putting in so much work the past couple weeks. Obviously it’s really frustrating when you don’t see good results. So seeing how I played this week, it helps a lot. Just I think I can tell myself that my hard work is paying off and I’m hitting the shots I wanted and making all these putts. It’s just nice to see your hard work pay off for sure.”
South Koreans Sei Young Kim (66) and Jenny Shin (67) also tied for third with Kim having shot the lowest round in this year’s playing of the event, a 63, in her second round and Shin earning her third top-10 finish of the season.
