RANCHO MIRAGE, Calif. — Sun Young Yoo won the Kraft Nabisco Championship with an 18-foot birdie putt on the first playoff hole Sunday, earning her first major title after I.K. Kim missed a 1-foot putt on the final hole of regulation.
Yoo won the LPGA Tour’s first major of the season with steady play down the stretch, but she got to make the traditional leap into Poppie’s Pond only after Kim’s mind-boggling miss on the same green minutes earlier.
Yoo, who earned her second career LPGA Tour victory, and Kim finished at 9 under, but Kim could have all but wrapped up her first major with the tap-in par putt.
Kim might have struck the ball oddly, and it toured the lip of the cup before coming out on the same side it entered. The gallery gasped, and Kim raised her left hand to her mouth in disbelief.
“I played straight, and it actually just broke to the right, even that short putt,” said Kim, a 23-year-old South Korean who lives in the Los Angeles area. “So it was unfortunate on 18, but ... I feel good about my game. It’s getting better.”
Kim’s unbelievable miss on the Dinah Shore course will go down in tournament lore after a thoroughly wacky final round in which five players held the lead.
Kim had been the most consistent contender amid those wild momentum swings, going bogey-free through 17 holes — until she made a mistake reminiscent of Scott Hoch’s missed 2-foot putt that would have won the 1989 Masters, and Doug Sanders’ miss on a 3-footer to win the 1970 British Open.
“On the playoff hole, it’s just hard to kind of focus on what’s going on right now,” Kim said. “Because I was still a little bit bummed (about) what happened on 18, honestly.”
Yoo and Kim played the 18th again in the playoff, and Kim’s drive cleared the water, landing in the rough. She left a birdie putt short from the fringe, and Yoo calmly reached the green before burying her winning putt.
Yoo, who joined Grace Park as the only South Korean winners in the history of the tournament, seemed a bit reluctant to celebrate after hugging Kim, but she joined her caddie for the leap into Poppie’s Pond.
Kim and Yoo shot 69 in the final round.
Top-ranked Yani Tseng finished third at 8 under with a disappointing final-round 73.
Even after blowing a Sunday lead at the Kraft Nabisco for the second straight year, the Taiwanese star had a chance to join the playoff on the 18th, but pushed a long birdie putt wide by an inch.
Kim had been incredibly steady until her miss, making a 15-foot birdie putt on the 16th hole and a 20-footer on the 17th to break a three-way tie for the lead. Kim comfortably reached the green on the 18th and barely missed a long birdie putt.
Kim needed only a tap to preserve her lead with Tseng one stroke back on the 18th fairway. Kim lined up over it patiently, but somehow missed the unmissable shot.
She tapped in for a bogey that dropped her into a tie with Yoo, and Kim raised both hands to her ears in pain, staring blankly at the bridge as she walked to the scorers’ tent.
Tseng then barely missed her tying putt, leaving her flat on her back in frustration — but even the world’s best player was thinking about Kim.
“I feel so bad for her,” Tseng said. “I wish she had made it.”
Defending champion Stacy Lewis closed strong with a 66 to finish in a four-way tie for fourth place with Amy Yang and late leaders Karin Sjodin — who shot a 74 after entering the final round even with Tseng and leading at the turn — and Hee Kyung Seo, who had a three-stroke lead on the back nine before bogeying her final four holes.