Munoz getting closer to first LPGA Tour title
Spain’s Azahara Munoz has yet to win on tour, but believes if she keeps putting herself in the proper position, as she did this week en route to a runner-up finish at the LPGA Lotte Championship, good things will happen.
BY THE NUMBERS
5
Top-six finishes in six starts this season for Ai Miyazato, who won Saturday by four strokes.
12
Countries represented among the LPGA Lotte Championship’s top 26 finishers at Ko Olina Golf Club on Saturday.
$10,113
Earnings, in four starts, for LPGA Tour rookie Ayaka Kaneko, after the Sacred Hearts alum finished in a three-way tie for 67th on Saturday to earn $3,696. |
“I can’t wait to be in contention again,” said Munoz, who was the LPGA Tour’s 2010 rookie of the year. “Hopefully, I learn from today and get the win.
“Being in the final group is what we practice for. I’ve been missing this. At the end of last year, a couple of times I was in the last group and I love it. That’s why we play golf.”
The 2008 NCAA champion out of Arizona State, Munoz tied for second at Ko Olina Golf Club with Meena Lee of South Korea at 8-under 280. She was tied with Lee and eventual winner Ai Miyazato with six holes to go, but played those in 1 over.
Miyazato went 3 under to seal her eighth tour victory with a 12-under 278 finish.
“Ai didn’t really give me a chance,” Munoz said. “She beat me by four. I made stupid mistakes and maybe if I hadn’t made bogey at 14 things would have turned out differently.
“She played really well at the end. She made really nice putts and amazing up and downs. It’s a little frustrating not to win, but at the same time, I’m happy. I was second starting the day and I finished second. I didn’t do anything atrocious.”
Her previous second-place finish was at last year’s Sunrise LPGA Taiwan Championship. The 24-year-old Munoz was 3 under on the front nine on Saturday, but 2 over on the back.
LPGA Tour shows off worldwide reach
It was just another multinational day for the LPGA Tour. Twelve countries were represented in the top 26 after Sunday’s final round.
Eight of the top finishers came from South Korea and four from the U.S.
There were also three Swedes, two players apiece from Taiwan and Japan and one each from Spain, Norway, Colombia, England, Australia, Canada and Paraguay.
Americans had won five of the last six Hawaii stops before the tour took a two-year break from the islands after the 2009 SBS Open at Turtle Bay.
LPGA ‘optimistic’ about return to Ko Olina
Hawaii hosting the Lotte Championship next year is not guaranteed, but an LPGA Tour official said Saturday all indicators point to return engagements at Ko Olina Golf Club in 2013 and 2014.
The LPGA and Asian industrial giant Lotte have a three-year deal that started with this week’s tournament. It marked the LPGA’s return to Hawaii after a two-year hiatus.
The contract doesn’t specify sites of the tournament each year.
“We anticipate coming back here and there’s no reason to suspect otherwise,” said Sean Pyun, LPGA director of tournament business affairs. “But the deal between Lotte and Ko Olina was for just one year. Everyone is very happy — sponsors, players — so we’re optimistic the tournament will be here next year and the year after.
“The chairman of Lotte (Shin Dong-bin) said he thinks Hawaii is the perfect place for the tournament.”
Before this week, the LPGA’s last tournament in Hawaii was the 2009 SBS Open at Turtle Bay. Ko Olina hosted the Fields Open from 2006 through 2008.
Trophy represents new tower in Korea
The trophy given to champion Ai Miyazato is in the shape of the Lotte World Premium Tower, currently being built in Jamsil, Korea. The tower will be 123 floors and 1,824 feet tall. Once completed, it will be recognized as the third-tallest building in the world.
