Eun-Hee Ji won on the LPGA for the first time in three years.
Her timing couldn’t have been better.
Ji outlasted the 64-player field at the Bank of Hope LPGA Match Play at Shadow Creek in Vegas and by winning, she clinched the final spot in this week’s U.S. Women’s Open.
Ji was one of 19 hopefuls in Vegas who were not yet in the field at Pine Needles. She becomes the first player since Katherine Kirk in 2017 to win the LPGA tournament prior to the U.S. Women’s Open and thereby clinch the final spot. Ji, 36, is the oldest Korean winner on the LPGA.
The win was the sixth of her career and first since claiming the 2019 Hilton Grand Vacations Tournament of Champions. Ji defeated Andrea Lee 4 and 3 in the semifinals before claiming a 3-and-2 win Ayaka Furue in the final at Shadow Creek in Las Vegas.
Now, Ji will be playing for big bucks in North Carolina. The 77th U.S. Women’s Open has a $10 million purse, with $1.8 million going to the winner.
Benefits of a purse that size extend throughout the whole field, however, even to those who don’t play the weekend. This year, professionals who miss the cut will receive $8,000, double what was given last year at The Olympic Club in San Francisco. The men who missed the U.S. Open cut at Torrey Pines last year received $10,000.
Golfweek’s Beth Ann Nichols contributed to this article.
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