Mao Saigo birdied the first hole of sudden death to win a five-way playoff at the Chevron Championship.
Saigo defated Ariya Jutanugarn, Ruoning Yin, Lindy Duncan and Hyo Joo Kim to capture her first LPGA title, a major championship.
The Japanese player, who was last year’s LPGA rookie of the year, shared the 54-hole lead at The Club at Carlton Woods. She needed to birdie her final hole of regulation Sunday, however, to shoot 74 and post 7 under.
That was enough to earn a playoff spot as Jutanugarn bogeyed the par-5 18th after stubbing a chip shot from behind the green.
Playing the 18th again in overtime, Saigo hit her second shot over the green and got relief from the grandstand. She chipped to 4 feet and watched as everyone in front of her missed.
Yin had an eagle putt to win but ran her putt 10 feet past and missed the comebacker. With Kim and Duncan also failing to birdie, Jutanugarn had a 6-footer but horseshoed her birdie putt.
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