-7 A Stanford (US); -5 S Ryu (Kor), I Park (Kor), Y Noh (US); -4 JY Ko (Kor); -3 A Nordqvist (Swe), C Hull (Eng) |
Selected others: +4 L Maguire (Ire); +8 J Ewart Shadoff (Eng); +10 S Meadow (NI); +12 M Reid (Eng) |
American Angela Stanford captured her seventh LPGA Tour title with a two-stroke victory at the Volunteers of America Classic in her native Texas.
The 43-year-old world number 79 began the final round one behind but carded seven birdies in a four under 67 to finish with a seven under total.
World number one Ko Jin-young, who also started one shot back, shared second.
Britain’s Charley Hull eagled the 17th and was tied for sixth place after a 71 kept her at three under.
Major winners Ryu So-yeon and Inbee Park shared the lead overnight with US rookie Yealimi Noh and it became a four-way tie early in the final round when Ko collected two birdies, before a double bogey at the par-four 14th, when her third shot rolled back to her feet, checked her challenge.
Stanford birdied four of the last six holes at The Colony in suburban Dallas to secure her first victory since her first major title at the 2018 Evian Championship.
“After the major, it would have been easy to be satisfied, and I was for a while,” she said. “But I don’t like bad golf. I worked with my coach and then it was fun to be around.”
Stanford was thrilled to win while watched by her parents; her mother Nan has fought cancer twice.
“It’s pretty cool since my parents have never seen me win in person,” she said. “To have my parents here, that was a pretty big deal.”
The US Women’s Open begins in Houston on Thursday, with the season-ending Tour Championship the following week in Florida.