KUALA LUMPUR – Despite missing the cut in four successive events now, national golfer Kelly Tan showed she is on the right track to pick up her slow start to the season.
Tan’s recent second round exit after missing the cut by two shots at the Chevron Championship in Texas saw the 29-year-old take away positives from the opening Major of the 2023 Ladies Professional Golf Association (LPGA) season.
“My coach Gary Gilchrist was with me this week to work on a couple of things and I felt a lot better.
“I played with much more confidence on Friday. I’ll keep doing what we worked on and build confidence each day,” Tan said in a statement.
She noted that her second round score of 71, following an opening round of 76, provided cause for optimism.
Tan has been on a slow start this year following her solid finish in 2022 where she came in 67th on the LPGA’s season-long Race to the CME Globe standings.
Meanwhile, American Lilia Vu claimed her maiden career Major title with a dramatic playoff victory over compatriot Angel Yin at the tournament.
The 25-year-old Vu made her fourth appearance at The Chevron Championship following a missed cut in 2022, finishing as a low amateur with a T40 performance in 2018, and a T46 result in 2014 when she won a junior qualifying event to get in at age 13.
Both Vu and Yin found the fairway off the tee in the first hole of the playoff, but Yin sent her second shot into the lake while Vu overshot the green.
Yin then had to take the penalty drop and found the green in four strokes, while Vu chipped to around 15 feet and sunk a birdie to take the title.
Vu continued the pond-jump tradition made famous at Mission Hills, as she will be walking away with US$765,000 (RM3.4 million) from the US$5.1 million (RM22.6 million) total purse. – The Vibes, April 24, 2023
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