6/20/22 - Jennifer Kupcho Wins Meijer LPGA Golf Classic

Good crowds at Blythefield Country Club and the Meijer LPGA Simply Give Golf Classic ends in a playoff.

Belmont, Mich. (The Detroit News) - The golf wasn't always pretty. But it was plenty exciting, as the Meijer LPGA Classic always tends to be.

And in the end, it was Jennifer Kupcho raising the crystal trophy after making a pair of birdies on two sudden-death playoff holes Sunday evening, the second of which clinched her second LPGA victory. She beat Leona Maguire, who lipped out on a 3-footer for birdie on the second playoff hole, and defending champion Nelly Korda, who three-putted for par on the first extra hole.

Kupcho survived a final-round 71, in which she had a double-bogey on the third hole and failed to birdie the 18th for the outright win when her tee shot caught the lip of a fairway bunker.

The resiliency of battling through the bad shots (a double and two bogeys) to persevere in the end (with an eagle and five birdies, two in the playoff) was a rewarding feeling for Kupcho, and, if she's being honest, a relatively new feeling, too.

Kupco hit her drive on the first playoff hole on the exact same line as the final hole of regulation, but found an extra yard this time — "adrenaline," she believed — and it ricocheted off a downhill slope just past the bunker and spit several yards down the fairway. From there, she had 164 yards, and went flag hunting with an 8 iron, landing her second shot just shy of the green and rolling it to just 3 feet past the hole. She called it the best shot of her week. And for a moment, it looked like she might have a walk-off albatross.

Instead, Kupcho pulled the eagle putt, sending her and Maguire to another extra hole.

She actually almost missed the extra same-length putt for birdie in regulation.

Maguire, who began the day seven shots back of Korda's lead before carding a 7-under 65, missed her 20-foot eagle putt on the first playoff hole but tapped in for birdie. Korda, who shot a final-round 72, three-putted from 40 feet for par, done in by a tee shot that found the right rough, into some tree trouble. The playoff marked the first time all week when Korda didn't birdie or eagle the 18th hole at Blythefield Country Club.

Back on the 18th tee, Maguire found the right rough, while Kupcho again got another great bounce, from the right rough into the fairway. From there, Maguire shaped a neat fairway wood around some trees, rolling up to 25 feet, while Kupcho found the back fringe, 15 feet away.

Both missed the eagle effort, Maguire just barely — but her putt slid by to just outside tap-in range, and one of the game's better putters couldn't convert.

The trio finished regulation at 18 under, one shot ahead of Lydia Ko, who was 17 under after a 68. Jessica Korda, Nelly's older sister, was in a group of four players at 16 under which included Lexi Thompson, who took the outright lead with a birdie on 10 at 18 under, but stumbled down the stretch.

Thompson pulled her tee shot at the par-5 14th into the lake, and made bogey, one of three bogeys the back nine and she stumbled to a final-round 70.

Carlota Ciganda (67) and Atthaya Thitikul (68) also finished at 16 under, tied for fifth.

Brooke Henderson, still the only two-time winner of the Meijer (2017 and 2019) after Nelly Korda came up short Sunday, finished at 15 under after a 72, tied for ninth with Wei-Ling Hsu, who shot 66.

LPGA legend Cristie Kerr, 44, finished tied for 12th at 13 under, after a 69.

This marked the third playoff in the eight playings of the Meijer LPGA Classic, and first since 2016 — this one a battle of two of the young stars, Kupcho and Maguire, at last fall's Solheim Cup, in Toledo.

The LPGA returns to Michigan next month for the third playing of the Dow Great Lakes Bay Invitational, a two-person team event hosted by Midland Country Club from July 13-16.