Danielle Kang is two-for-two since the LPGA Tour restart after the shutdown because of the Coronavirus pandemic.
The 27-year-old Kang, from Thousand Oaks and Pepperdine, came from five strokes down with six holes to play and won the Marathon Classic by one stroke when leader Lydia Ko of New Zealand made a double-bogey on the last hole at Highland Meadows Golf Club in Sylvania, Ohio.
“My caddie looked at me and said, ‘You’re right in it,’” said Kang, who has won five times on the LPGA Tour. “I looked at him and said, ‘I’m five down with six holes to go.’ I kind of liked that mentality, made some good birdies coming in and kept it together.
“It gave me hope. Sometimes when you’re that far behind, you feel like you have to do a lot to get to that end.”
Kang, who rose to second in the Women’s World Rankings by winning the LPGA Drive On Championship last week, birdied the 13th and 14th holes to start her comeback and needed only four pars to finish as Ko fell apart.
Ko, who has won 15 times on the LPGA Tour but not since 2018, made bogeys on the 14th and 16th holes before her double-bogey 6 on the last, missing a 10-foot putt that would have forced a playoff.
Kang, who won the 2010 U.S. Women’s Amateur Championship, posted a score of 64-67-70-68—269, 15-under-par, while Ko wound up at 64-65-68-73—270 to tie for second with Jodi Ewart Shadoff of England, who finished at 67-63-73-67—270.
Minjee Lee of Australia was fourth at 68-67-68-68—271, while Andrea Lee totaled 67-71-73-65—276 to tie for fifth with Marina Alex, who wound up at 69-71-69-71—276, Emma Talley, who totaled 72-66-69-69—276, and Yu Liu of China, who finished at 70-68-69-69—276.
Stacy Lewis shot 69-71-73-65—277 to finish in a huge tie for ninth with Kendall Dye (72-70-68-67—277), Patty Tavatanakit of Thailand and UCLA (71-66-72-68—277), Pernilla Lindberg of Sweden (71-70-67-69—277), Kelly Tan of Malaysia (70-68-70-69—277), Maria Fassi of Mexico (67-66-75-69—277), Carlota Ciganda of Spain (68-68-71-70—277), Cydney Clanton (67-70-69-71—277), Sophia Popov of Germany (66-70-70-71—277), Maria Fernanda Torres of Puerto Rico (70-68-67-72—277) and Lindsey Weaver (68-69-67-73—277).
For complete results, visit https://www.lpga.com/tournaments/marathon-classic-presented-by-dana/leaderboard
