Jin Young Ko won the first major championship of 2019 on the LPGA Tour, the ANA Inspiration, by three strokes over Mi Hyang Lee, but it was Janet Lin who pulled off the shot of the tournament on the famous 18th hole.
Lin, who put herself in position for a top-20 finish before a double bogey-bogey stretch on Nos. 14 and 15, faced a bizarre and unusual situation on the 72nd hole. Playing her third shot into the par-5 well right of the putting surface, her ball came to rest on the bridge that goes over the famous Poppie’s Pond.
With no angle directly toward the hole, Lin played a bump and run out to the right of the flag and watched as the contours of the green brought her ball within a few feet of the hole.
PAR SAVE FROM THE BRIDGE! ?@JanetLinXiYu goes up and down for par from the bridge over Poppie’s Pond at the @ANAinspiration!@GolfChannel #SCTop10 pic.twitter.com/RsEgQPprU5
— LPGA (@LPGA) April 8, 2019
Lin would make the par putt to post a 3-over par round of 75 to finish the tournament at 1-over par, 11 shots back of Ko.
For Ko, a 23-year-old South Korean, it was her second victory in three weeks, but her first major championship.
“It’s a really great honor,” Ko said, according to GolfChannel.com.
Lexi Thompson finished in third place, four shots behind the eventual champion, thanks to a final-round 5-under par 67.
