A gutsy Gaby Lopez poured in a 25-foot birdie putt on the seventh playoff hole to claim the season-opening Diamond Resorts Tournament of Champions. The 197-yard par-3 18th proved a beast of a hole all week long, with only six birdies recorded among LPGA players. Lopez was responsible for three of them.
What started out as a three-way playoff with LPGA Hall of Famer Inbee Park, Nasa Hataoka and Lopez was whittled down to two once darkness fell at Tranquilo Golf Course. Flood lights and a Jumbotron lit up the green as fans chanted “One more hole!” Ultimately, Hataoka and Lopez had to come back on a chilly Monday morning to resume play as temperatures dipped into the 40s.
“I proved to myself that I can win any situation,” said Mexico’s Lopez, who claimed her second LPGA title.
On Sunday, Lopez birdied the 18th in regulation to cap off a 66 and make her way into the playoff. The changing conditions had her switching between a 3 hybrid and 4 hybrid throughout the evening. By Monday morning, however, Lopez said she had the distance worked out precisely with the help of her caddie, coach and Trackman. She even backed off a bit behind the tee markers on the seventh playoff hole, striking a 3-hybrid exactly as she designed.
After matching pars on the first six playoff holes, Lopez poured in the first birdie on a putt she’d seen several times before. Hataoka had a chance to match it from only 12 feet but missed it left so badly it never had a chance.
It marked the fourth-longest sudden-death playoff in tour history, matching the 2004 LPGA Takefuji Classic where Cristie Kerr defeated Seol-An Jeon. The longest sudden-death playoff came at the 1972 Corpus Christi Civitan Open when Jo Ann Prentice defeated Sandra Palmer and Kathy Whitworth in 10 holes.
When Golf Channel’s Jerry Foltz asked Lopez if she was glad she didn’t have to see Tranquilo’s 18th hole for another 52 weeks, she smiled and said no.
“I do have a feeling for this hole,” she said.
It made her a winner once more.
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