Hyo Joo Kim of South Korea shot 5-under-par 67 in the final round to win the JTBC Founders Cup by three strokes over Stacy Lewis at Marriott’s Wildfire Golf Club in Phoenix.
The 19-year-old Kim, who claimed her second LPGA Tour victory and 12th as a professional, took control by carding five birdies on the last eight holes, including a 10-foot birdie putt on the final hole.
South Koreans have won five of the six tournaments on the LPGA Tour this season.
“In the morning, I wasn’t concentrating on winning because I was playing with Stacy Lewis and as a rookie, I just felt that by playing with her, I would learn a lot from her,” Kim, who captured the Evian Championship last year in France for first major title, said through a translator. “I was just trying to make a good impression as a rookie.”
Lewis, who has won 11 times in the LPGA Tour but has been a runner-up 14 times since 2012, closed with a 68 that included a bogey on the final hole after her tee shot wound up in a sand-filled divot.
Ilhee Lee of South Korea finished with a bogey-free 66 that included an eagle on the 15th hole and tied for third, five shots back, with Pornanong Phatlum of Thailand, who shot 67, and Mi Hyang Lee of South Korea, who came in at 68.
Top-ranked Lydia Ko of New Zealand posted a 68 and tied for sixth, six shots behind, with Na Yeon Choi of South Korea, who had a 66, Austin Ernst, who totaled 65, Anna Nordqvist of Sweden, who carded a 64, and Sei Young Kim of South Korea, who closed with a 65.
Alison Lee of Valencia and UCLA, who moved into a tie for third in her third LPGA Tour event by tying the course record with a 63 in the third round, struggled to a 74 and finished in a tie for 24th that included Cheyenne Woods, niece of Tiger, who had a 70.
