It had to be endured. There was no other option. The Blue Bay LPGA became this Sunday a test of endurance, nerves and pure competitive instinct, and that is where Mi Hyang Lee (-11) stood out. The South Korean claimed in Hainan her third title on the LPGA Tour, the first since the ISPS HANDA Women’s Scottish Open in 2017, no less than 3,143 days later, after closing the tournament with a final round of 73 strokes, one over par, and a total of -11. She won by one shot over the Chinese Weiwei Zhang and did so finishing with a birdie on 18, the decisive stroke to close a week that on Sunday seemed to be slipping away from her.
It was not a clean or comfortable victory. It was better than that. It was a hard-fought, gruelling win, full of twists. Mi Hyang Lee started with the lead, opened with a birdie and, nevertheless, suddenly found herself caught in the middle of the storm with two double bogeys in the first nine holes. There, when it would have been easiest to fold, she found a way to keep going. She said so afterwards: she was close to giving up, but her caddie kept telling her to keep fighting. And she did. She clung to the tournament, recovered in a round in which the wind blew strongly, with gusts over 40 kilometres per hour, and in which the day’s scoring average shot up to 74.667, the highest of the week.
That exercise in survival ended up as victory thanks to a flawless finish. Lee covered the back nine in 33 strokes, without bogeys, and found birdies just when she needed them most. As the course hardened and many contenders lost their footing, she regained control. She didn’t even need a brilliant tee-to-green card: she hit 7 of 14 fairways and 11 greens, but made up for it with 27 putts and, above all, with composure. That was the difference. In the ability to resist disaster and keep creating opportunities.
Weiwei Zhang was the one who applied the most pressure. The Chinese delivered a notable round of 69 strokes, three under par, with an eagle, five birdies and the distinction of recording one of the best rounds of the day. She finished just one behind the champion, while Auston Kim and Aditi Ashok shared third place at -8. In a Sunday of true carnage, only ten players managed to break par. It was not a day for ornamentation, but for survival. And no one did it better than Mi Hyang Lee.
Lee not only took the tournament, but has become the first South Korean player to win this season on the LPGA and the second from her country to triumph at the Blue Bay LPGA after Sei Young Kim in 2015. She also rises to number 4 in the Race to CME Globe and surpasses six million dollars in official career earnings. All of that is very good. But perhaps the most important thing is something else: after so many years without lifting a trophy, she felt like a winner again.
The weekend leaves a bittersweet taste with the only Spaniard in the tournament: Carolina López Chacarra (+6). The Madrid native had posted two brilliant opening days, at -3 after 36 holes and placed high on the leaderboard, sending a serious message in her first test as a professional on the LPGA. However, the tournament became an uphill struggle for her over the weekend. On Saturday, with the course already much more uncomfortable, she fell to +3 and out of the top positions, and on Sunday she ended up fading completely to around the top 50. In short: a performance of great value in the first half of the tournament and a weekend to learn, just when the wind, the challenge and the harshness of the Blue Bay bared their teeth.
