Taiwanese golfer Cheng Ssu-chia on Sunday earned her second career victory by finishing 17-under-par over three rounds at the Island Resort Championship in Michigan, winning the tournament by six strokes.
The 24-year-old Taipei native followed her lights-out performance of eight birdies and zero bogeys on Saturday by starting her final round with an eagle on the first hole.
She went on to pocket five more birdies during the round, helping to make up for bogeys on holes two and 13.
Photo: Tu Chien-jung, Taipei Times
“I was trying to do my best out there, and I didn’t want to hold back. That’s not good for me and not good for the game,” said Cheng, winner of the 2019 FireKeepers Casino Hotel Championship in Battle Creek, Michigan.
Cheng said she kept to her plan of staying away from the rough, as she felt mentally tired in the final stretch after hitting consecutive birdies on holes 15 and 16.
“You don’t want to land in the rough out here, so I was trying to hit as many fairways and greens as possible,” she said.
In second place, six strokes behind Cheng, was South Korea’s Jeon Jiwon, who carded four birdies and two bogeys in the third round to finish with a two-under 70.
“There was a greater risk of making mistakes today, and I was trying not to do that. If I had a mistake, I played with it, and if I had the opportunity to make a birdie, I tried to do that too,” she said.
Jeon’s second place was also a personal best in her three-year professional career.
With the win, Cheng took home US$31,875 in prize money, bringing her total earnings this season to US$38,132.
The Island Resort Championship was held at Sweetgrass Golf Club in Harris, Michigan. The tournament is part of the Epson Tour, the LPGA’s developmental tour.
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