Haeran Ryu birdied the first playoff hole to beat Brooke Henderson and win the Amundi Evian Championship, completing her second major title in three weeks.
According to a fresh recap from Golf Channel and NBC Sports, Ryu and Henderson finished regulation locked together at 19 under par before returning to the par-five 18th for sudden death. Henderson missed the fairway left and laid up short of the green, while Ryu found the putting surface in two shots. When Henderson’s third shot drifted left of the green and she could not get up and down, Ryu two-putted for the winning birdie.
Brooke Henderson’s Late Charge Forces Historic Evian Playoff
Henderson began the final round seven shots off Ryu’s pace, eagled the par-five seventh, and, still four adrift, holed a hole-in-one at the par-three eighth, before closing with another eagle at the 18th to force sudden death. It capped a stunning final-round 64 that very nearly denied Ryu, who managed only one birdie of her own in regulation, on the closing hole, after Aki Iwai’s late birdie attempt to join the playoff slipped by.
Ryu’s win is worth $1.4 million from the tournament’s $9.1 million purse and caps a remarkable fortnight that began with victory at the KPMG Women’s PGA Championship at Hazeltine. It leaves Aki Iwai’s third-place finish at Evian as the closest anyone got to her all week. The South Korean’s Saturday round of 60, the lowest ever shot in a women’s major, still stands as the headline number from a week that overshadowed Nelly Korda’s missed cut in France. With two majors now banked, Ryu heads into the ISPS Handa Women’s Scottish Open in two weeks as the form player in women’s golf.
