SYLVANIA, Ohio — Gaby Lopez rallied from 4 photographs behind Sunday and closed with three straight birdies for a 8-under 63 and a one-shot victory within the Dana Open.
Lopez completed her large run with a 12-foot birdie putt on the par-5 18th at Highland Meadow, setting off a sequence of fist pumps, understanding it will preserve her one shot forward of Megan Khang.
All that was left for the 28-year-old Mexican was to see if anybody may catch her.
Nobody got here significantly shut, and Lopez had her third profession LPGA Tour victory, her first because the Event of Champions to start out the 2020 season.
“I knew I needed to make it as a result of Megan was going to make hers,” Lopez mentioned. “I observe precisely for this second. We obtained the job carried out.”
Khang, who shot 29 on the entrance on a rain-softened course, closed with a 64.
Lucy Li, the 19-year-old Californian who began the ultimate spherical with a one-shot lead, struggled to make birdies. Her hopes successfully ended when she hit right into a fairway bunker on the sixteenth gap, performed nicely in need of the inexperienced and missed a 5-foot par putt.
Li birdied the 18th gap for a 70 and tied for fourth. She already has her LPGA Tour card for subsequent season by means of the Epson Tour. Li tied for ninth in Canada final week to get into the Dana Open, and now she is eligible to play the LPGA occasion in Cincinnati subsequent week.
“Yesterday I used to be a bit nervous on the primary couple of holes. At the moment did not actually really feel nervous in any respect, in order that was undoubtedly good,” Li mentioned. “There may be a number of classes to be realized, however in the present day I hit it good and I simply could not get numerous the putts to fall actually.”
The beginning of the ultimate spherical had a really feel of a battle of prodigies — Lexi Thompson certified for the U.S. Girls’s Open in 2007 when she was 12, after which Li broke her file in 2014 by qualifying at 11.
They have been within the last group, together with Caroline Masson of Germany. Ultimately, none have been actually an element.
Thompson has gone greater than three years with out profitable, and she or he did not make a birdie till the ultimate gap. She closed with a 73 and tied for sixteenth, seven photographs behind.
Li had one birdie and 14 pars as Lopez and Khang took over at Highland Meadow.
Masson was one shot behind Li at first and was rapidly forgotten when she opened with a double bogey and adopted that with a bogey to fall 4 behind. Ultimately, Masson was the final one with an opportunity, although she would have wanted an eagle-eagle end on the 2 closing par 5s.
She birdied them each for a 68 to complete alone in third.
For Lopez, it was a matter of not attempting to assume an excessive amount of about each shot, each outcome, and put her in a snug way of thinking on a wild day by which she had 10 gamers forward of her at first.
“That is going to sound loopy, however in the present day felt extra like a Friday spherical,” Lopez mentioned. “Having that quiet is what we’re engaged on, and it has paid off.”
She was two photographs behind and missed 6-foot birdie probabilities on the ninth and eleventh and by no means misplaced give attention to what she was attempting to do.
“Doubts come into your thoughts,” Lopez mentioned. “However my caddie mentioned, ‘We simply preserve doing what we’re doing. It is undoubtedly working, and we will decide to that the final gap and see what occurs.’
“When you preserve it within the current, that is when magic occurs.”
