CNN
 — 

Lilia Vu triumphed on the Chevron Championship on Sunday, besting American compatriot Angel Yin in a playoff to seal the primary main of her profession in The Woodlands, Texas.

Vu had begun the ultimate spherical 4 pictures adrift of co-leader Yin however rallied with 5 birdies – together with two to shut – to tie the world No. 172 at 10-under and drive a playoff. On the primary replay of the 18th gap, the 25-year-old curled house a winding birdie putt to clinch victory after Yin’s second shot had splashed into the water.

Shortly after, it was Vu’s flip to search out the water. Leaping into Poppie’s Pond had been a long-running custom for champions at Mission Hills in California, host of the most important from its inception till its relocation to Carlton Woods for 2023.

Vu wasted no time in renewing the ritual, diving into the lake beside the 18th inexperienced to toast her second LPGA Tour victory and a winner’s verify of $765,000, the most important of her profession. Having nearly walked away from the game following early struggles as a professional, it topped a cathartic victory for the world No. 12.

“All the things occurs for a motive,” Vu instructed reporters.

“All of the dangerous issues, every thing I’ve ever struggled by way of, family-wise, internally, I feel myself as the most important impediment, I had a reasonably robust, not simple previous two days.

“I used to be undoubtedly my very own enemy, and I don’t understand how I pulled this out. I’m simply actually blissful and pleased with Cole [caddie] and I for doing this.”

Regardless of a adorned novice profession, Vu endured a grueling begin to life on the LPGA Tour, making the lower simply as soon as in her first 9 begins after turning skilled in early 2019.

She wouldn’t play one other LPGA occasion till 2022, by which level she had misplaced a formative determine in her life. Vu’s grandfather, who had fled his native Vietnam together with her mom, had died within the early phases of the Covid-19 pandemic.

Amid effervescent frustrations throughout a moist and windy remaining spherical, it was the reminiscence of her grandfather that saved Vu grounded.

Vu putts on the 18th green.

“I used to be simply in such a foul place with my golf recreation. All the things was life or loss of life,” Vu mentioned. “I simply noticed all people that I’ve competed with being profitable, and I simply in contrast myself on a regular basis.

“However now I do know that everyone’s journey is completely different, and every thing occurs for a motive … Even at present, I used to be getting actually upset on the course, and I simply needed to remind me, like, ‘Grandpa is with you, and he’d be actually disillusioned if you happen to had been getting upset like this and that you just didn’t get your act collectively.’

“I feel he’d say that each one my struggles had been price it,” she added.

Vu is sprayed with champagne after winning.

Runner-up Yin was upbeat regardless of agonizingly lacking out on a primary profession main. The 24-year-old, runner-up on the US Open in 2019, had seemed poised for victory earlier than back-to-back birdies on the sixteenth and seventeenth holes opened the door for Vu.

A strain birdie on the remaining gap to drive the playoff signaled a robust response, however Yin’s fightback was finally sunk by her subsequent shot into the water.

“I didn’t actually really feel a lot nerves in any respect this week, even coming into this stretch,” Yin instructed reporters.

“My caddie was telling me to relax, however aside from that, I actually simply wasn’t actually feeling a lot. I’m simply actually mellow. That’s why this lack of emotion, and I’m not crying.

“I’m simply actually proud of who I’m, the place I’m and what I’m doing proper now … If I can speak about how a lot I admire life proper now, I’ll get emotional, not over this,” she added.

Yin drives from the third tee during the final round.

World No. 2 Nelly Korda completed one stroke in need of making the playoff in third, with Thailand’s Atthaya Thitikul headlining the group of 5 gamers that completed tied for fourth at eight-under par.

In the meantime, Jennifer Kupcho endured a grim try and defend her title, capturing six-over par to overlook the lower and end tied for 108th.

The ladies’s golf main calendar continues with the US Open at Pebble Seashore in California on June 6.