Jutanugarn captures LPGA’s Canadian Open

Ariya stands to win $337,500, about B11.7 million.

And what about the leaderboard at the 2016 Canadian Pacific Women’s Open, the four-round showdown just west of Calgary that concludes with Sunday’s final spin?

Jutanugarn was the leader after the opening round there.

Chun, the 2015 US Women’s Open champion, stormed into contention with a bogey-free 66, posting three birdies on each nine. “I played solid all week, and there’s a lot of positives to take from this week”. Her confidence has soared and her mammoth tee shots – usually played without a driver – have flown well down the fairway.

Remarkably, it was Jutanugarn’s fifth win of the season, a campaign she began without a single win on the LPGA Tour. Players 23 or younger have won 21 of the 23 tour events this year.

World No. 1 Lydia Ko also had a 69 in her final round to finish tied for seventh.

“So I know when I get really excited, what I have to do”. “Canadian Opens I haven’t always finished my best here just because it’s so busy and I have so many commitments and a lot of other things going on, but since I started when I was 14, I’ve just continued a little bit every year, which is always a good sign”.

Canada’s Alena Sharp had the best result of her LPGA Tour career, birdieing the final two holes for a 67 to finish fourth at 16 under.

After giving back a stroke on the 522-yard closer, Jutanugarn is suddenly only two shots up on South Korea’s In Gee Chun, her closest challenger.

“After I won my first tournament, I feel like I reached my goal”, she told reporters after her round. Leblanc, 27, was not as happy after missing a short par putt for a bogey there.

“When I start to miss first cut and I missed like 10 cuts in a row, and I just feel like at that time, the only focus, was I’m scared to miss the cut”, she said. “But yeah, I played good, but obviously there’s some improvement I need to make”.

Another player who represented their homeland last week at the Olympics was world no. 3 Brooke Henderson of Canada.

They’ll morph from the home-country favourites to the home-province favourites.

“Next year in Ottawa is going to be fantastic”, Henderson said. “That’s the only key I want to be right now”.

Sharp’s ball bore the initials “DCJ” to honour Dawn Coe-Jones. She finished within the top 10 in eight tournaments this year, and out of the eight, she had the worst performance in the fourth round.

“It was pretty big for us when she had her first win, because she had been working so hard for it”, said Ariya’s older sister, Moriya, who is also an LPGA Tour regular but missed the cut at Priddis Greens. “I was calm, I hit great shots”.

“I felt like I wanted to have fun and be happy”, Jutanugarn said. With a three-day tally of 8-under 208, Henderson is now nine shots off the pace of leader Ariya Jutanugarn.