Eun-Hee Ji wins LPGA Match Play title at Shadow Creek

Gusty winds, exhaustion and the prospect of the year’s toughest tournament in four days turned the conclusion of the Bank of Hope LPGA Match Play into a battle for survival.

Eun-Hee Ji, who made two lengthy putts to avoid being eliminated Friday, instead found herself holding the championship trophy Sunday night at Shadow Creek. She held off Ayaka Furue 3 and 2 in the championship match for her sixth career title and a spot in the U.S. Women’s Open, which begins Thursday.

Ji, who won that major in 2009, had not qualified until her victory Sunday earned her the final spot.

“I’m so excited to win this tournament and then going to next week, because I was like, this is the way to (get) in next week, right?,” said Ji, who hasn’t missed a U.S. Women’s Open since 2007.

The championship match was a battle of mistakes on the front nine, with Furue holding a 1-up lead through seven holes despite playing them in 4 over. Then everything changed for Ji.

She made a birdie on the par-3 eighth to even the match, then provided the match’s lone burst of energy on the signature ninth hole. After Furue hit her approach shot to 6 feet, Ji hit a 52-degree wedge from 92 yards to the front edge, where it took two hops and disappeared into the bottom of the cup.

It’s a shot that nearly didn’t happen.

“My caddie gave me wrong number the first time,” Ji said.

But after he remeasured the distance with a laser, Ji had the correct number and a different club in her hand. “I just hit it what’s the number and then it just goes in. I’m like, so excited.”

Ji added another win on the 10th hole despite driving into a fairway bunker. She put her approach to 15 feet because of knowledge she gained in her morning semifinal when she landed in the same bunker.

She gave a hole back at No. 11 when she chunked her second shot into the front bunker, sailed her next shot over the green and failed to get her chip close.

But Furue’s magic on the greens was gone after Ji’s hole out. She failed to get up and down on 10, 12 and 16, and failed to capitalize when she had an advantage on No. 13 with a messy three-putt bogey.

Both players had relatively easy semifinal victories in the morning, with Ji beating Andrea Lee 4 and 3 and Furue handling Lilia Vu 3 and 1. Ji won her final three holes to put the match away, while Furue won three of the first five holes to build a lead she never relinquished.

Furue said the exhaustion from the week and the windy conditions Sunday finally got the better of her.

“It was definitely tough conditions out there,” she said through her interpreter. “I was having to use my brain a lot with the wind being so strong. Just not only physically draining but mentally draining as well.”

Ji was happy not only with the title but to get off the course for good. She said her legs and back were giving her problems Sunday afternoon.

“I was really tired, and over the round my leg was almost not moving,” she said, noting everyone else was in the same situation. “So it’s, you know, I just need to play well.”

And that she did better than anyone else for the week.

Greg Robertson covers golf for the Review-Journal. He can be reached at grobertson@reviewjournal.com.