BETHESDA, Md. — In Gee Chun of South Korea rallied after losing the remaining of her once-sizeable lead, overcoming a bogey-filled front nine to win the Women’s P.G.A. Championship on Sunday when Lexi Thompson faltered together with her putter.
Chun shot a three-over-par 75 for the second consecutive day at Congressional Country Club outside Washington, D.C., but that was enough for her to win her third profession major title by a stroke over Thompson, an American, and Minjee Lee of Australia. Chun, after leading by six strokes on the tournament’s midway point, lost a three-shot advantage in the primary three holes of the ultimate round. Thompson led her by two strokes after the front nine, but Thompson’s putting problems were just starting.
Thompson, 27, botched a par putt from a few feet on No. 14, but a birdie on the fifteenth hole restored her result in two strokes. Then she bogeyed the par-5 sixteenth hole while Chun birdied, leaving the players tied with two holes remaining.
Thompson three-putted for bogey on No. 17, and after a powerful approach from the rough on the 18th hole, her birdie putt wasn’t hit firmly enough.
Chun’s approach on the par-4 18th bounced past the outlet and just off the back of the green, but she putted to inside about 5 feet and sank her par attempt for the win.
Chun, 27, led by seven strokes after ending her round with an eight-under-par 64 in wet conditions Thursday. Her lead was right down to five at the top of that day — still equaling the biggest 18-hole advantage within the history of ladies’s major tournaments.
She was six strokes ahead on the halfway point and had a three-shot advantage coming into Sunday. She finished the tournament with a 283, five under par.
Chun won her first major on the U.S. Women’s Open in 2015 and added the Evian Championship in France the next yr.
Thompson hasn’t won an L.P.G.A. Tour event since 2019, and her lone major victory got here as a young person at Mission Hills within the California desert in 2014. She has definitely had probabilities: She lost a five-stroke lead in the course of the final round of last yr’s U.S. Women’s Open at The Olympic Club in San Francisco.
This yr, she was 10 strokes back after the primary round before steadily chasing down Chun. Thompson made birdies on Nos. 1 and three on Sunday. Chun bogeyed Nos. 2 and 4 to fall out of the lead.
Thompson missed short birdie putts on the eighth and ninth holes — foreshadowing her problems later within the round — but Chun’s 40 on the front nine left her two back on the turn. Sei Young Kim, who had made it to 6 under at one point, bogeyed holes eight, 10, 11 and 12 and fell out of contention. She finished the tournament in a five-way tie for fifth.
When Chun made her first birdie of the day on the par-5 eleventh, Thompson answered with a birdie of her own to stay two shots ahead at seven under. When Thompson bogeyed 12, so did Chun.
The sixteenth hole, where Chun needed to take an unplayable lie and made double bogey Saturday, was the turning point in her favor in the ultimate round. Thompson was just short and right of the green in two shots but took 4 from there to make bogey, while Chun rolled in her birdie putt after a protracted wait.
