Anna Nordqvist overcame a brutal playing environment, impending darkness, mono, Brittany Altomare, and a final-round five-shot deficit to win the weather-shortened Evian Championship on the first hole of a sudden-death playoff at the fifth and final major of the LPGA season.
Anna Nordqvist outlasts Brittany Altomare in playoff at rain-shortened Evian Championship
Photo by Stuart Franklin/Getty Images
With darkness falling and driving rain, sleet, and hail pelting the Evian Resort Golf Club course, Nordqvist buried a four-foot bogey putt on the soaked 18th hole to win her second major championship.
The 2009 LPGA Championship winner, who battled glandular fever (mononucleosis) this summer, outlasted third-year pro Altomare under borderline-unplayable conditions similar to those on Thursday that forced the LPGA to reduce the tourney to 54 holes.
Both finalists tied in regulation at 9-under after final-round 66s — a shot clear of 36-hole leader Moriya Jutanugarn, former world No. 1 Lydia Ko, and Katherine Kirk. Jutanugarn, who was looking to join Ariya in the history books as the first sister act to win major titles (Ariya prevailed at the 2016 Women’s British Open ), held serve until her out-of-bounds tee shot led to a bogey on the par-5 13th and she dropped from the top spot.
With two eagles on her card, Nordqvist came out of nowhere in Sunday’s finale, going 8-under in an 11-hole stretch, between the sixth and 16th. The eighth tour victory for the 30-year-old Swede came in the event for which commissioner Michael Whan took heat for expunging Thursday’s partial scores when he shortened it to 54 holes.
