CHANDLER, Ariz. — There’s a Western-themed attraction just south of Phoenix called Rawhide, where guests can take a step back in time to the Old West. There’s a branding room, a saloon, a make-believe jail and actors re-enacting gun fights on Main Street.
Next door to Rawhide is another place known for shootouts and some of the best players on the LPGA engaged in just that Sunday at Whirlwind Golf Club during the final round of the 2025 Ford Championship.
Lilia Vu started the final round with the lead at 18 under. Charley Hull was in the final group with her at 16 under. There were seven others within four shots of the lead and on a course where you gotta keep up, it didn’t take long for some serious jockeying to take place atop the leaderboard.
Allisen Corpuz, whose only other win is the 2023 U.S. Women’s Open, birdied four straight on the front nine on Nos. 5-8 to get to 19 under to climb within one shot of the lead.
Vu birdied the first two holes Sunday and was the first to 20 under. Hyo Joo Kim was the second after she made birdie on the 10th. Corpuz later joined the 20-under club with a birdie on the 11th. Jeeno Thitikul then birdied the 13th to become the fourth player to reach 20 under for the week.
And that’s how Sunday felt. If you blinked, you missed something.
A variety of contenders challenged for the lead Sunday
Kim, who started the final round five shots back, posted the round of the day Sunday with an 8-under 64. She went on a birdie binge with circles on her card at Nos. 5, 7, 8, 10 and 11 to climb into contention. She stepped back with a bogey on 12 but then made back-to-back birdies on 16 and 17 to get to 22 under. She would par 18, sign for that 64 then play the waiting game to see if her score would hold up.
“I kept on thinking we might go on a playoff so I kept on stretching,” Kim said through a translator after her round.
Corpuz would birdie just two of her final 10 holes to finish at 21 under. Thitikul closed with four straight pars to finish at 20 under. So it was up to Vu, at 21 under with two holes to play, to try to catch Kim.
On 17, after a 275-yard drive, Vu had to wait for the green to clear to hit her second into the par 5. She ended up in a greenside bunker but proceeded to hit a stellar sand shot to about a foot and tapped in for birdie to tie for the lead at 22 under.
“It took quite a long time because we also waited on 17 and I can kind of feel my body getting a little tighter,” Vu said. “But, you know, I got lucky with my drive. I hit the fairway. I think with an adrenaline pump I just hit my pitching wedge way too far and there was, it was just going forever.”
On 18, Vu had to wait again, this time on the tee box for close to 15 minutes, as Nanna Koerstz Madsen had to track down her tee shot in the desert scrub. Vu’s tee shot was left but somehow skirted around a fairway bunker. Her second from about 120 yards out was online but landed hard and released firmly off the back of the green, leaving her a tricky up-and-down to force a playoff.
Vu chipped her third to about 7 feet and with the way she was putting all week, most expected her to roll it in and she did, pouring it in for par.
What happened in the playoff at the 2025 Ford Championship?
The first playoff of the LPGA season, but the fourth in Vu’s career, took the duo back to the 18th tee.
Both golfers found the green in two, but Kim was much closer. Vu was up first to putt. From about 20 feet, her ball rolled along the long shadow she was casting on the green as daylight was running out, but it came up short left.
“Obviously I didn’t give an aggressive enough putt, but it hit a little bump and finished short,” Vu said. “But Hyo Joo hit a good shot, hit a good putt, and then, yeah, won it. There is really nothing to it.”
Kim did indeed drain her slightly breaking birdie putt from about five feet to win the 2025 Ford Championship.
“So it’s been a while since I had any winning so I was getting a little bit stressed,” Kim said. “But I did work out a lot during the wintertime so now that I have a win I’m a little bit lighthearted.”
She is the sixth different winner in six tournaments in 2025. It’s her seventh LPGA win.
How the top 3 finished at the 2025 Ford Championship
1. Hyo Joo Kim, 22 under*
2. Lilia Vu, 22 under
3. Allisen Corpuz, 21 under
How some notables finished at the 2025 Ford Championship
4. Jeeno Thitikul, 20 under
T-6. Yealimi Noh, 18 under
T-6. Lydia Ko, 18 under
T-11. Charley Hull, 17 under
T-22. Nelly Korda, 14 under
T-38. Lexi Thompson, 11 under
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