Lilia Vu of Fountain Valley, California is a major champion for the first time. On Sunday, she posted a 72 hole score of -10 at the 2023 Chevron Championship in the Woodlands, Texas. Vu then faced fellow American Angel Yin of Los Angeles, California, and won in a playoff.
On the first and only playoff hole, Vu had a score of birdie, while Yin had a par putt. Yin got off to significant trouble as one of her shots in the playoff landed in the water. This gave Vu all of the momentum, and won the Chevron Championship with an impressive 15-foot putt that went into the hole.
Over the weekend, Vu posted scores of four-under-par in rounds one and four, three-under-par in round two, and one-over-par in round three. In the first round on Thursday on the eighth hole, Vu had an eagle. This was Vu’s second LPGA title. She in fact had a win earlier this year, as on February 26, won the 2023 Honda LPGA Thailand event. Vu posted a score of -22 and beat Thailand’s Nattahakritta Vongtaveelap by a stroke.
Eight other players were in contention at the Chevron Championship. Nelly Korda of Bradenton, Florida, the 2021 Women’s PGA Championship winner, was all alone in third place at -9. There was a five-way tie at -8 in fourth place. There you had South Korea’s A Lim Kim and Amy Yang, Switzerland’s Albane Valenzuela, Thailand’s Atthaya Thitikul, an American Allisen Corpuz of Honolulu, Hawaii.
Corpuz was the co-leader with Yin after round three, while Kim, the 2020 United States Women’s Open champion, was the leader after round two. Thitikul, meanwhile, was at -10 after 17 holes on Sunday, but posted a score of double bogey on the 18th hole. There was also a two-way tie for ninth place at -7. Megan Khang of Brockton, Massachusetts and two-time major champion Jin-young Ko of South Korea were three strokes back. Ko won the 2019 ANA Inspiration (name of the tournament before the Chevron Championship), and the 2019 Evian Championship in France.
