Haeran Ryu produced a dominant display at the inaugural Black Desert Championship for a wire-to-wire win and her third LPGA Tour title.
The South Korean finished on 26-under for the tournament, which was held at Utah’s Black Desert Resort, to win by five over Esther Henseleit and Ruoning Yin.
Ryu began the tournament as she meant to go on, standing at nine-under after a first round 63 to lead by one, and that became a two-shot advantage at the halfway stage following a second round of 67. A 68 on Saturday took her to 18-under, two clear of Yin and three of Henseleit.
However, if Ryu’s closest rivals for the title felt the door was still open to taking her place at the top of the leaderboard in final round, the 24-year-old was in no mood to be charitable with a 64 - the lowest round of the day - as Henseleit got closest to her with a 65 and Yin carded a 67.
The signs were ominous from Ryu’s first hole of the day, where she made a birdie, and she was three-under for her round at the turn following successive birdies at the sixth and seventh. Despite that typically assured start, she couldn’t take anything for granted, particularly where Henseleit was concerned after she got off to a blistering start with five birdies on the front nine that cut Ryu’s lead to one as they headed to the 10th tee.
However, just when it looked as though Henseleit would threaten Ryu’s dominance, the birdies dried up, with her sixth not arriving until the 18th, by which point, Ryu had opened up a huge lead, helped by further birdies on the 11th, 15th and 18th along with an eagle at the 13th.
As for Yin, who was in the final group with Ryu and Henseleit, she came to life on the back nine with six birdies, although any slim hopes she had of catching Ryu were all but dashed following her one blemish of the day, a double-bogey at the 16th.
For Yin, it was her second near miss in succession after losing out in a five-way playoff to Mao Saigo at the Chevron Championship. Ryu finished two back of reaching the playoff last week after a four-over final round of 76, and she revealed consulting with her coach had given her the mindset to bounce back in style.
She said: “I just call my Korean coach every day. I ask him, what's the problem? What's it mean? What's the problem for me? He said, ‘No problem, Haeran. Just keep focus and keep calm and more trust your golf.'”
That pep talk helped her claim $450,000 from an overall payout of $3m.
