Lilia Vu says grandfather’s memory an inspiration after Major win at Chevron Championship

HOUSTON – Lilia Vu kept the memory of her late grandfather in mind to maintain her composure on Sunday, as she collected her maiden Major title at the Chevron Championship.

Vu, 25, drained a long birdie putt to beat fellow American Angel Yin in a play-off at the Club at Carlton Woods near Houston and said it was not always easy to hold her nerve on the challenging course.

“The past two days, I was very angry. I didn’t feel like myself,” she said. “I just felt like I was getting angry over every single little thing, and that’s usually not how I roll.”

Vu said she thought of her grandfather, who fled his native Vietnam with his wife and children and died early on during the Covid-19 pandemic, to keep herself going.

“Today, I was getting really upset on the course, and I just had to remind myself, like grandpa is with you, and he’d be really disappointed if you were getting upset like this and that you didn’t get your act together,” she said.

The win was all the more sweet after she struggled to keep going during a low point in her career in 2020.

“I was just in such a bad place with my golf game. Just everything was life or death. I just saw everybody that I’ve competed with being successful, and I just compared myself all the time,” said Vu.

“But now I know that everybody’s journey is different.”

Vu and Yin each finished 72 holes on 10-under 278 on the Jack Nicklaus Signature course at The Woodlands in Texas.

Vu fired a four-under 68 and set the score to beat. Yin unravelled with bogeys at Nos. 16 and 17 but sank a six-foot birdie putt at the par-five 18th to shoot 72 and force sudden death.

But Yin found water on her approach in the play-off and Vu sank a tension-packed 14-foot birdie putt for the victory.

“I can’t even put into words what I was feeling,” Vu said. “I was nervous. I was scared. I was cold. I just wanted to hit the putt and just be done with it.

“I just saw my line and speed – I knew it was going to be a fast putt – and trusted myself.”

Moments after making the winning putt, Vu followed a tournament tradition that began at its former home in California of jumping into water, taking her plunge into the same chilly greenside lake where Yin’s ball sank earlier.

“I had a tough, not easy, past two days,” she said. “I was definitely my own enemy. I don’t know how I pulled this out. I’m just really happy and proud.”

World No. 12 Vu won the US$765,000 (S$1.02 million) top prize in only her ninth Major start. She won her first LPGA title in February in Thailand and becomes the tour’s first multi-event winner in 2023. She became the 21st player to claim her first Major title at the event.

World No. 172 Yin, in only her third LPGA start of 2023, had not managed a top-10 LPGA finish since sharing third in last May’s Founders Cup.

But the 24-year-old from Los Angeles had been the 2019 US Women’s Open runner-up and took a Ladies European Tour victory at Dubai in 2017.

“I feel like I felt when I started the round,” she said. “Not much has changed other than I lost. Just happy with how I am playing.

“Today just wasn’t hitting it very good and 16 and 17 was just bad club decision, and bad mindset on 16 off the tee.”

American Nelly Korda (71) drained an eagle putt on No. 18 to finish third, one shot back, after missing the 2022 event following surgery for a blood clot in her arm.

She said: “A little sad that I didn’t really have my best stuff today. My putter kind of let me down this week a little.”

The 24-year-old Olympic champion reclaimed the world No. 1 ranking on Monday from New Zealand’s Lydia Ko, who missed the cut after rounds of 71 and 76.

REUTERS, AFP