Charley Hull wins tournament; Ariya Jutanugarn takes top honors
NAPLES, Fla. — The LPGA Tour was seeing 20/20 on Sunday.
Charley Hull and Ariya Jutanugarn, a pair of 20-year-olds, took home the big prizes to end the 2016 season at Tiburon Golf Club at the Ritz-Carlton Golf Resort.
Hull of Britain finally broke into the winner’s circle, shooting a record 19 under to win the CME Group Tour Championship, and Jutanugarn of Thailand finished off a breakout season, by winning the season-long $1 million Race to the CME Globe and the Rolex Player of the Year.
“It feels great to be a winner on the LPGA Tour,” said Hull, who won $500,000. “It’s wicked to do at 20. It’s fun. So feels good to be joining the winners this year.”
The tour may have had perfect vision, but Hull was more concerned about not watching or worrying about anything as she tried to hold on to her first 54-hole lead.
“I think I’ve lost every time I’ve been leading,” she said.
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Hull watched Netflix — “a Henry VIII kind of series” — talked to her friends, watched some of their Snapchat videos “because it’s Saturday night” and went to the gym. Then she came out Sunday — and with her swing rhythm thought “strawberry ... mousse” as she takes her backswing and then follows through — and did all she could to avoid seeing a leaderboard.
She thought about her plans for the next couple of weeks, funny things her friends have done — even to the point where she had to back off a putt Saturday because she was laughing about something.
“I kind of caught the edge of the leaderboard before I putted (on No. 18) and saw that I was leading by two,” she said. “So I thought ‘Ah, OK, cool.’”
Besides Hull’s Ladies European Tour win two years ago, she may be known most to American fans for the past two Solheim Cups, where she has a 6-2-0 record. In 2013, she smoked Paula Creamer, 5 and 4, then asked for her autograph. Last year, Hull was in the group with Suzann Pettersen, Alison Lee and Brittany Lincicome, when Lee thought a short putt had been conceded, but Pettersen said it hadn’t and the Americans ended up losing the hole. The controversy, which left Hull and Lee in tears, rallied the Americans to victory in singles the next day.
“She’s a nice girl, so down to earth, really has a heart of gold,” said Lincicome on Sunday after playing with Hull and So Yeon Ryu in the final group. “Obviously we’ll see her win many, many times out here.”
Hull and Ryu, the 2011 U.S. Women’s Open champion, battled back and forth throughout, and started pulling away from the rest of the field.
“Oh my gosh, is everyone in this tournament shooting birdies on every hole?” Lincicome said of watching the pair widen their gap. “I wasn’t really looking at the leaderboard, but I guess it was just those two. It was unreal.”
On No. 14, Hull fired at the pin and the ball stopped a few feet away. Ryu answered, rolling hers just past the edge of the cup for a tap-in birdie. Hull made hers, though, to retain a one-shot lead.
Ryu tied it with a birdie on the par-3 16th, but took a chance and paid for it on the par-5 17th. She put her approach in one of the stacked-sod bunkers, and was forced to pitch out sideways. She bogeyed, and Hull birdied, giving Hull a two-shot lead going to the last hole.
“The whole 18 holes I just tried to make a good decision with Tom (her caddie),” Ryu said. “Once I make a decision, I 100 percent believe my decision, and then I did it. Maybe 17 was the only one my decision wasn’t really great. Maybe better to hit a 3-wood or draw or something like that.”
Both Hull and Jutanugarn had been pegged for stardom the past couple of years, but Hull won in her first full LPGA Tour season, and Jutanugarn — who missed 10 straight cuts last year and bogeyed the last three holes to lose the ANA Inspiration earlier this year — tied for fourth to hold off Lydia Ko to win player of the year and the Race to CME Globe.
“I feel like this week is really, really special for me, because before this week I’m really nervous, to be honest,” Jutanugarn said. “I keep calling my pyschologists, like ‘I can’t do this.’ Even like before this round, I’m like ‘What should I do?’ It’s been pretty hard for me this week. I never have had this feeling before.”
“It feels good to be now one of the young ones that have won,” Hull said.
Wednesday, Jutanugarn will get to do what Super Bowl champions are known for — go to Disney World. That’s not part of winning the $1 million, though. She’s going to celebrate her 21st birthday.
“Maybe I can spend a little bit with that,” she said.
Hardwig writes for the Naples Daily News, part of the USA TODAY Network.