Ernst wins Drive On Championship for 3rd LPGA Tour title
Albane Valenzuela misses a putt during the final round of the LPGA Drive On Championship at Golden Ocala in Ocala, Florida on Sunday, March 7, 2020. [Alan Youngblood/Special to the Ocala Star-Banner]OCALA, Fla. – Austin Ernst won the Drive On Championship on Sunday for her third LPGA Tour title, pulling away to beat fellow former NCAA champion Jennifer Kupcho by five strokes at Golden Ocala. She won the NCAA title in 2011. It’s just unfortunate that’s when mine came for the week.”Winless on the tour, the former 23-year-old former Wake Forest star from Colorado won the NCAA title in 2018 and the inaugural Augusta National Women’s Amateur in 2019. Nelly Korda, tied with Ernst and Kupcho for the first-round lead, had weekend rounds of 76 and 75 to tie for 28th at even par.
Sei Young Kim has late birdie run to take Women’s PGA lead
Kim birdied five of the final six holes as darkness fell Friday at Aronimink for a 5-under 65 and the second-round lead in the KPMG Women’s PGA Championship. She tied Karrie Webb (2001) and Sarah Kemp (2011) for the lowest nine-hole score in the Women’s PGA Championship. “The birdie on 14 was pretty good because it was a long birdie putt, and that’s when I started the four-birdie streak,” Kim said. A 10-time LPGA Tour winner, Kim is looking for her first major victory. She was runner-up at the 2015 KPMG Women’s PGA Championship and tied for second at the Evian Championship in 2018.