After so many first-time winners on the LPGA Tour, Lilia Vu raced ahead of the pack with her second major and third LPGA title of the year, gaining the AIG Women's Open title at 14-under.
The LPGA Tour has been an open field the last few years, with many first-time winners and nary a dominant player.
However, with two majors this year, 25-year-old Lilia Vu just put herself in a different league, becoming the first American woman in the last 100 years to achieve multiple majors in the same year.
Up until Saturday, it looked like another American, Ally Ewing, was going for her maiden major, with the 30-year-old having held a five-shot lead heading into the third round. Despite her commanding position, Saturday isn't referred to as "moving day" for nothing, and Ewing watched her lead evaporate as a flock of contenders emerged ahead on Saturday's back nine.
One of those included Charlie Hull, the hometown favorite at Walton Health, who was also gunning for her first major in front of a compatriot crowd. Four birdies on the back nine on Saturday put her in contention, but the Northamptonshire native couldn't match her streak of excellence from Saturday, playing it safe at the start of Sunday, with mostly even pars on the front nine, marred by two bogeys.
However, the two-time LPGA winner excited English fans once more with a stunning eagle on 11 that showed she was making a run to catch up with the leader.
The problem was that the leader was Lilia Vu, who held the English golfer at bay. One more birdie for Hull on 16 sparked excitement for a far-fetched chance to equal Vu, but two bogeys on holes 15 and 17 made the win for Vu a foregone conclusion.
Although Vu's only bogey of the day occurred on hole 15, four more birdies on the back nine signaled Vu's spectacular accomplishment. She capped off her final round with a nerveless birdie on the last hole, a stylish conclusion to her stunning display of confidence and skill. She finished six shots ahead of everyone else, and a 67 for the day.
Lilia Vu bucks LPGA trends with AIG Women's Open victory
It's been quite a year for world No. 6 Lilia Vu, who won for the first time on the LPGA Tour just this year, with her victory at the Honda LPGA tournament in February. Just two months later she went on to achieve her first major, the Chevron Championship in April. It was also the first major of the year. Vu didn't have much to commend her in between Chevron and the AIG, missing several cuts.
"It feels surreal to have this kind of Sunday and to come out with a win, given the past couple months," said Vu, via the LPGA. "I've been struggling with my game and just feeling good, I'm really happy."
What matters is how you end in the end, which is exactly where Vu found herself once again, finishing where she started in the majors this year, locking in the final one at Walton on the Hill, just southwest of London.
"It's been a while since I played Chevron that I actually felt pretty decent about my game and where it's at," said Vu the day before, according to Golf Channel. "So I'm just going to do the same thing I did today — just focusing on tee shots and giving myself a good opportunity for birdies, and just do that tomorrow, not think too much about the wind.
"Because every time that happens, it just slips away from me."
This time, the title didn't slip away. With the most major wins on the tour this year, the championship trophy stayed well within Lilia Vu's grasp. She will also surge to the top of the women's Rolex Rankings.
"Being the best in the world, that's just crazy to me, just thinking about the struggle I had this year and just to come out with that, it's just incredible."
Incredible is exactly how you can describe Lilia Vu's year.
