Lilia Vu makes a par putt on 18 to move into a four-way tie for second at the 2024 AIG Women's Open.
Luke Walker/Getty Images
When Lilia Vu reached the 18th place of St. Andrews on Sunday evening, he had a slim chance of winning his third major title. Minutes later, not only did she lose the AIG Women's Open, but a brutal verbal outing cost her a huge amount of money.
The 26-year-old American star, who broke into 2023 with two major victories including the Women's Open, started the week as the defending champion and among the betting favorites.
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He started the final round where he was expected to be: one shot behind 54-hole leader Jiyai Shin with a good chance to defend his open title and continue to strengthen his place among golfers. But after Sunday's final round, it looked like the only player ranked above Vu in the Rolex World Ranking, Nelly Korda, was determined to claim a historic win.
But when Korda made a nasty double bogey on the par-5 14th hole, Vu suddenly found himself tied for the lead at six under with a few holes to play. Korda finally dropped out of contention with a bogey at 17. At the same time, Lydia Ko pulled off a clutch birdie on 18 to finish with a round of 69 and take the clubhouse lead at seven under.
Vu will need one birdie on his final two holes to force a playoff, and two birdies to win outright. At the age of 17, he was able to make a number of saves, giving him one last chance to keep his title hopes alive.
Vu managed to reach the green in two on the closing hole of the Old Course. But with the R&A's centuries-old clubhouse behind him, Vu left his mid-range birdie effort a few feet away.
It was a disappointing end to a great campaign, or so everyone thought. With the opportunity to play over, Vu prepared to hit a par putt, which would have put him in second place, enough to earn an impressive $939,026 from a record $9.5 million purse.
But sadly for his bank account if not his career, Vu's short par putt went out of the hole. A subsequent bogey gave him a one-over 73 for the day, dropping him to a final score of five under. It also dropped him from second to single to a four-way second.
Separating the winners from the other three players proved too costly for Vu. His new salary was $594,759. Which means the last lip-hole outing cost him $344,267.
To put it in perspective, the value of money is Vu is lost it was $25,000 More the next player on the leaderboard, Ariya Jutanugarn, benefited from his solo sixth-place finish ($319,336).
For his clutch win, the third major of his Hall of Fame career, Ko took home a cool $1.425 million.
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