Page 32 - Golf Champion - August 2020

[LPGA TOUR]

DANIELLE KANG WINS AT INVERNESS IN LPGA

RETURN TO GOLF

돌아온 LPGA 투어 인버네스에서 대니엘 강 우승

OLEDO, Ohio(Photo LPGA)— Danielle Kang was
away from the LPGA Tour for six months during
Tthe COVID-19 pandemic, which is not to suggest
she was without competition.
She lost track of the games she played with her broth-
er, Alex, who has spent two seasons on the Korn Ferry
Tour, and boyfriend Maverick McNealy, in his rookie
year on the PGA Tour. She played the back tees and
forward tees, moved about to different courses in Las
Vegas and felt her game improving.
It paid off Sunday when Kang closed with a 2-under 70
and held on for a one-shot victory over Celine Boutier
in the LPGA Drive On Championship at Inverness, the
first LPGA Tour event since February.
She played a brand of steady golf that wins on tough
golf courses, an Inverness was all of that. Only five
players finished under par in rapidly changing condi-
tions.
Kang and Boutier, who closed with a 71, turned the fi-
nal hour into a duel. Boutier hit the pin with her tee
shot on the par-3 12th for birdie to get within two shots,
Kang made her only bogey on the par-5 13th with a soft
chip, and Boutier rolled in an 8-foot birdie on the 14th
to tie for the lead.
But it was Boutier who blinked. She missed a short par
putt on the 15th hole to fall one shot behind, and then
stuffed her approach to 4 feet below the hole on the
18th. Instead of a playoff, however, Boutier made a
tentative stroke on a tricky putt and the ball caught the
left edge of the cup and spun away.
Kang, the No. 4 player in the women's world ranking,
won for the fourth time in her career. It was her first
LPGA competitoin since Jan. 23 in Florida. She did not
go to Australia, and then the COVID-19 pandemic halt-
ed play on the Asian swing and then on through the
summer.

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