Choi Hye-jin rues late miscue in unsuccessful bid for maiden LPGA win

With an errant tee shot and a costly lip-out on the penultimate hole, Choi Hye-jin saw her one-stroke lead turn into a one-stroke deficit down the stretch at her latest LPGA tournament.

And the South Korean player never recovered, settling for second place by one at the Meijer LPGA Classic for Simply Give at Blythefield Country Club in Belmont, Michigan, on Sunday (local time).

After that bogey on the par-4 17th hole, Choi bounced back with a birdie on the par-5 18th hole. It was not enough, though, as Carlota Ciganda of Spain, who had taken the lead with a birdie on the 17th, matched Choi’s birdie on the final hole to win the tournament at 16-under 272.

Choi, who joined the LPGA Tour in 2022, was chasing her first career win in her 88th start.

“Overall, it was a really good round for me. I had a chance to win this tournament,” Choi said through an interpreter after making three birdies, one eagle and one bogey. “But the bogey on 17 is just the one I’m thinking about. So I’m going to try at the next tournament.”

Choi and Ciganda were the only two players to shoot in the 60s in all four rounds. They posted the exact same scores in the first three rounds, going 69-67-69 on the par-72 course, and Ciganda was one better than Choi at 67-68 on Sunday.

On the 17th, Choi pushed her tee shot into thick stuff on the right, among a few trees. Her second shot got a piece of one of the trees but still settled on the fairway. From there, Choi gave herself a par putt of about five feet, but the putt lipped out for her first and only bogey of the day.

Choi arrived in Michigan in good form, with back-to-back fourth-place finishes at the Mexico Riviera Maya Open at Mayakoba and then the U.S. Women’s Open.

“I had lots of chances recently, the three tournaments from Mexico to the U.S. Open and this one. So I feel that my condition was really good,” she said.

With the season’s third major, the KPMG Women’s PGA Championship, coming up in the new week, Choi said, “It is a very important tournament next week, so I’m going to try to keep my condition well.”

Despite the near miss, Choi said she was pleased with the way she didn’t get caught up in the result.

“The last few tournaments I had, I didn’t really play well in the last round. I think that I didn’t concentrate on playing and just thought about the result, so I didn’t do what I was supposed to do,” Choi said. “But this week, I tried to focus on the process, not the result, so I just played well and had some good shots.”