Hsu Wei-ling on Sunday rode an eagle at the 15th hole to an emotional two-stroke victory in the Pure Silk Championship, capturing a long-awaited first LPGA title.
“I thought I wouldn’t cry,” said the 26-year-old, who broke down in tears after a two-putt par at the final hole to seal the win.
However, the emotion had been building since her eagle at the par-five 15th hole, where her second shot kicked onto the green and she made the putt to suddenly find herself with a two-shot lead.
Photo: AP
Hsu’s playing partner, Moriya Jutanugarn — who started the day tied with Hsu for the lead — had arrived at the 15th hole with a two-stroke lead, but the Thai found a fairway bunker with her second shot and ended up with a double bogey at the easiest hole on the course at Kingsmill Resort in Williamsburg, Virginia.
“On 15, I knew there was a good chance,” Hsu said.
“I thought: ‘I’ve been waiting seven years for this, I don’t want to wait anymore,’” added the 26-year-old, who graduated from the Symetra Tour to play her rookie LPGA season in 2015 and has 10 top-10 finishes, including one runner-up, on her resume.
She padded her lead with a birdie at 16, finishing with a three-under-par 68 for a 13-under-par total of 271.
Moriya rebounded with her fifth birdie of the day at the 17th hole on the way to a one-under-par 70 and solo second on 11-under-par 273.
She was one stroke in front of American Jessica Korda, who had three birdies and two bogeys — including a three-putt at the last — in a one-under-par 70.
Hsu became the first Taiwanese player to win on the LPGA tour since five-time major winner Yani Tseng won the 2012 Kia Classic.
She said that she hoped the win would offer something positive for fans in Taiwan to enjoy amid the ongoing COVID-19 outbreak.
“I don’t know, like, what this win means for [Taiwan], but I really hope that I can give them some positive thought and a good energy to believe something,” she said.
“I know people are against the virus right now, sports are shut down, but there is something that the players or the people or the Taiwanese playing a different sport ... they can still cheer for.”
Hsu came into the week without high expectations, exhausted from the travel from the LPGA event in Thailand two weeks ago in a journey broken by a 36-hole qualifier for the US Women’s Open.
“I think this is the happiest thing ever, how my caddie cried and somehow I just cried so hard the last hole,” she said. “But I feel happy.”
PGA CHAMPIONSHIP
Reuters, KIAWAH ISLAND, South Carolina
Phil Mickelson has never doubted himself over the course of his 30-year PGA Tour career, and still has the hunger and desire to win that drives all great players, the six-time major champion’s brother and caddie, Tim Mickelson, said on Sunday.
Phil Mickelson carded a one-over-par 73 to finish on six-under-par at the PGA Championship and become golf’s oldest major winner.
It was also his first major title since the 2013 British Open.
Tim Mickelson has been on his brother’s bag since 2017, so Sunday’s triumph was the first time that he has been able to share victory in a major from inside the ropes.
“He never doubted himself,” Tim Mickelson said, after Phil Mickelson’s two-shot win over Brooks Koepka and Louis Oosthuizen at Kiawah Island, South Carolina.
“His will and desire to win now is as high as it’s ever been in my opinion. Certainly it’s probably higher than when I started caddying for him,” Tim Mickelson said. “I think the best players in the world all have that, and Phil has just carried that on for 35 years.”
Phil Mickelson’s manager, Steve Loy, predicted that there is much more to come.
“He’s healthier than he’s ever been,” Loy said. “I think he’s going to win five more times, maybe 10. You can’t tell him: ‘No.’ Every time I try to tell him: ‘Look, we are running out of time,’ he’s going: ‘I don’t want to hear it.’”
GEARING UP: An invasion would be difficult and would strain China’s forces, but it has conducted large-scale training supporting an invasion scenario, the report said China increased its military pressure on Taiwan last year and took other steps in preparation for a potential invasion, an annual report published by the US Department of Defense on Wednesday showed. “Throughout 2023, Beijing continued to erode longstanding norms in and around Taiwan by employing a range of pressure tactics against Taiwan,” the report said, which is titled “Military and Security Developments Involving the People’s Republic of China (PRC) 2024.” The Chinese People’s Liberation Army (PLA) “is preparing for a contingency to unify Taiwan with the PRC by force, if perceived as necessary by Beijing, while simultaneously deterring, delaying or denying
‘ONE BRIDGE’: The US president-elect met with Akie Abe on Dec. 15 in Florida and the two discussed a potential Taiwan-China conflict’s implications for world peace US president-elect Donald Trump has described Taiwan as “a major issue for world peace” during a meeting with Akie Abe, the widow of late Japanese prime minister Shinzo Abe, Japanese newspaper the Yomiuri Shimbun quoted sources as saying in a report yesterday. Trump met with Akie Abe on Dec. 15 at the Mar-a-Lago estate in Florida, where the two discussed the Russo-Ukrainian war and the situation in the Taiwan Strait. During the meeting, Trump spoke on the implications for world peace of a potential Taiwan-China conflict, which “indicated his administration’s stance of placing importance on dealing with the situation in
QUICK LOOK: The amendments include stricter recall requirements and Constitutional Court procedures, as well as a big increase in local governments’ budgets Portions of controversial amendments to tighten requirements for recalling officials and Constitutional Court procedures were passed by opposition lawmakers yesterday following clashes between lawmakers in the morning, as Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) members tried to block Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) legislators from entering the chamber. Parts of the Public Officials Election and Recall Act (公職人員選舉罷免法) and Constitutional Court Procedure Act (憲法訴訟法) passed the third reading yesterday. The legislature was still voting on various amendments to the Act Governing the Allocation of Government Revenues and Expenditures (財政收支劃分法) as of press time last night, after the session was extended to midnight. Amendments to Article 4
ALLIANCE: Washington continues to implement its policy of normalizing arms sales to Taiwan and helps enhance its defense, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs said US President Joe Biden on Friday agreed to provide US$571.3 million in defense support for Taiwan, the White House said, while the US State Department approved the potential sale of US$265 million in military equipment. Biden had delegated to the secretary of state the authority “to direct the drawdown of up to US$571.3 million in defense articles and services of the Department of Defense, and military education and training, to provide assistance to Taiwan,” the White House said in a statement. However, it did not provide specific details about this latest package, which was the third of its kind to
RSS