Leona Maguire shot a final round of 68 to secure a ninth-place finish at the Hilton Grand Vacations Tournament of Champions in Orlando Florida, the opening tournament of the LPGA Tour season.
The Irish golfer had a five birdies and one bogey on Sunday at Lake Nona Golf and Country Club for a 10-under-par total, 10 strokes behind the winner A Lim Kim of South Korea.
Kim completed a wire-to-wire victory despite some hearty competition behind her from world number one Nelly Korda, who made a late push with nine birdies in her round of 65, but she fell short and placed second at 18 under.
Sweden’s Linn Grant shot a 69 to take third at 15 under and Australian Minjee Lee fired the best round of the week – a 10-under 62 – to move up to a tie for fourth with South Korea’s Jin Young Ko (65) at 14 under.
It marks Kim’s third win on the LPGA Tour and her second in a three-month span. In early November, she broke through at the Lotte Championship for her first victory stateside since the 2020 US Women’s Open.
Kim had to birdie three of her last four holes to make sure Korda wasn’t too close on her heels.
Kim was pleased with the result after working over the winter on shaping her shots in different ways.
“All my career, I’m use a draw. I’m really good draw player,” Kim said. “But 130-yard inside game is not too good, so I want to change my shape and then working on it and then make it.”
Kim admitted she was monitoring Korda’s rise up the scoreboard, “and then focus again [on] my game.”
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