Park Min-ji wins Celltrion Queens Masters for third year in a row

Park Min-ji hits a shot during the Celltrion Queens Masters at Seolhaeone Country Club in Yangyang, Gangwon on Sunday. [KLPGA]

Park Min-ji won a third consecutive trophy at the Celltrion Queens Masters at Seolhaeone Country Club in Yangyang, Gangwon on Sunday, becoming the first golfer to win the event three times and adding her 17th KLPGA title to her trophy cabinet.

Park, the winningest golfer on the KLPGA Tour, won the event after a playoff against Lee Ye-won, who tied with the defending champion on 11-under-par, 205.

Park was dominant over the first two days of the tournament, carding a five-under-par, 67, in the first and second round to take the frontrunner position.

Sunday’s final round — the Celltrion Queens Masters was a 54-hole stroke-play event — had a three-hour delay due to lightning, but Park maintained the frontrunner spot after the event resumed at 4:43 p.m.

Having completed the first two rounds bogey-free, Park slipped slightly with four bogeys in the last round to tie with Lee Ye-won, forcing a playoff to decide the winner.

Lee, who had claimed her first-ever title at the Lotte Rent-a-Car Ladies Open in April, seemed close to winning her second title after first carding a birdie on the par-5 18th hole, but it was not enough to beat the defending champion.

Park made an eagle on the playoff hole to claim a third successive title at the Celltrion Queens Masters with a wire-to-wire run.

“The event was delayed and I was so nervous to the point where I felt sick,” Park said after the tournament. “I feel like I was absorbed in the fact that I won a lot of titles, so I worked to get back to the basics and I am really happy that those efforts paid off.

“Before I started this event, I intended to focus just on the present without thinking about the unclear future and regretful past.”

The Celltrion Queens Masters is Park’s first title of the season. She did not manage a top-five finish in the previous four KLPGA events and did not even make the cut at the E1 Charity Open two weeks ago.

With the third successive Celltrion Queens Masters trophy, Park became the fifth golfer in KLPGA history to manage a third consecutive win in a single event.

Ku Ok-hee, Park Se-ri, Kang Soo-yun and Kim Hae-rym have previously managed the feat before.

Meanwhile, Park Ju-young, who was the joint frontrunner with Park Min-ji in the second round, tied for fifth place with an eight-under-par, 208, and missed her chance to secure her first title at her 266th KLPGA event.

The KLPGA Tour will continue on Thursday with the DB Group Korea Women’s Open — the second major of the season — at Rainbow Hills Country Club in Eumseong, North Chungcheong.

BY PAIK JI-HWAN [paik.jihwan@joongang.co.kr]