Clutch Sunday performances by Ariya Jutanugarn and Bernhard Langer put the USGA champions at the top of their respective tours in 2016 victories, further elevating the former’s stature in the women’s game while cementing the latter as one of the most dominant forces in senior golf history.
Jutanugarn, of Thailand, shot a final-round 66 on Sunday to claim the Canadian Pacific Women’s Open at Priddis Greens Golf and Country Club in Calgary. Just two weeks after withdrawing from the Olympics midway through the third round due to a knee injury, the 2011 U.S. Girls’ Junior champion took the 36-hole lead with a Friday 64 and never looked back, closing with rounds of 69-66 to capture her fifth LPGA Tour victory of 2016, one more than 2012 U.S. Women’s Amateur champion and current world No. 1 Lydia Ko, who has won the event three times and finished tied for seventh.
Ko and three-time USGA champion Inbee Park won five LPGA Tour events in 2015. Yani Tseng, who won seven times in 2011, is the last player to eclipse that total in a single year.
The 20-year-old Jutanugarn was four strokes better than runner-up Sei Young Kim. U.S. Women’s Open champions In Gee Chun (2015) and Karrie Webb (2000, 2001) finished third and tied for fifth, respectively.
Ariya @jutanugarn now has five career @LPGA wins - all have come in 2016 pic.twitter.com/P4KwYuCplZ
— LPGA Media (@LPGAMedia) August 28, 2016
Langer, who turned 59 on Saturday, birdied the 18th hole twice in a span of less than 30 minutes on Sunday at the Boeing Classic at the TPC Snoqualmie Ridge in Snoqualmie, Wash., the first time forcing a playoff with Kevin Sutherland and Woody Austin, and the second time sealing victory. The win was the 2010 U.S. Senior Open champion’s fourth of the year on the PGA Tour Champions, pulling ahead of Austin, who has three. It was the German’s 29th career victory on PGA Tour Champions, which ties him for second all time with two-time U.S. Open champion Lee Trevino. Three-time U.S. Open champion Hale Irwin has the most, with 45.
Bernhard Langer fixed something in his swing recently.
— PGA TOUR Champions (@ChampionsTour) August 29, 2016
It paid off at the @BoeingClassic. https://t.co/H7hDtYZfu8
Tway Earns Shot at PGA Tour Card
2005 U.S. Junior Amateur champion Kevin Tway has put himself in position to play his way onto the PGA Tour. With a 27th-place finish on the Web.com Tour money list, Tway, 28, has earned a spot in the Web.com Tour Finals, reserved for the top 75 finishers on the Web.com Tour and anyone finishing between 126 and 200 in the FedEx Cup standings on the PGA Tour. The top 25 money-winners during the four-tournament series will earn PGA Tour cards for the 2016-17 season. Tway, whose father, Bob, won the 1986 PGA Championship and finished third in the 1998 U.S. Open, fell just short of having a PGA Tour card already locked up, with the top 25 finishers on the money list earning status. Tway missed the cut at Oakmont Country Club in June, his third U.S. Open start.
Scott Lipsky is the manager of websites and digital platforms for the USGA. Email him at slipsky@usga.org.
