'I still cannot believe this result': Amy Yang on her last-minute Olympic return

Amy Yang poses with the KPMG Women's PGA Championship trophy at Sahalee Country Club in Sammamish, Washington on June 24. [AFP/YONHAP]

Amy Yang's KPMG Women’s PGA Championship victory last month brought the veteran golfer not only her first major title on the LPGA Tour, but also a coveted ticket to the Paris Olympics.

“I was essentially thinking that I would not be able to go to Paris at all, and I didn’t even expect victory,” Yang said in a phone interview with the JoongAng Ilbo on Tuesday.

Yang, 34, won the major after carding a seven-under-par, 281, at the KPMG Women’s Championship, securing her sixth LPGA title and becoming the first Korean golfer to win on the Tour this season.

The road to victory was tough, especially during the last round when she made a bogey on the 16th hole and a double bogey on the next hole.

“That is just how I play,” Yang said. “I get nervous in the beginning but find momentum through the halfway mark, but I get nervous again in the end. My heart was pumping throughout the fourth round. I had a hard time calming myself down, but fortunately I was able to win as I had already stretched a margin with the one in second place.”

That first major win came in her 75th major start after making her Tour debut in 2008, with her previous best result at an LPGA major being a runner-up finish at the U.S. Women’s Open in 2012 and 2015.

Her first major victory sent her from 25th to fifth place on the Rolex Women’s World Golf Rankings, earning her a berth in the Paris Games alongside countrywomen No. 3 Ko Jin-young and No. 13 Kim Hyo-joo.

“I failed to make the cut in two tournaments in a row before the KPMG Women’s PGA Championship, and I was really worried as my shots were not so good,” Yang said. “I knew that I would barely secure a Paris Olympic ticket by winning, but honestly I had given up. I never expected to win, which is why I still cannot believe this result.”

The upcoming Olympics will be her second time competing at the Games after the Rio Olympics in 2016 when she finished in fourth place.

“I can’t forget my experience at the Rio Olympics,” Yang said. “I had never known how meaningful it is to represent my country and the best golfers from my country. I missed a medal by a margin of one stroke. I will look to medal with my strong fellow golfers Jin-young and Hyo-joo.”

Yang carded one stroke more than bronze medalist Shanshan Feng of China in 2016 when LPGA Hall of Famer Park In-bee topped the podium.

Winning a medal in Paris will make Yang the second Korean golfer to medal at the Games.

The Paris Olympics will run from July 26 through Aug. 11, which falls in the middle of the 2024 LPGA season that ends in November.

Before the Olympics begin, she will tune up in France at another major, the Amundi Evian Championship — co-sanctioned by the LPGA and Ladies European Tour — which tees off on July 11.

The golf tournament at the Paris Olympics will begin on Aug. 7.

BY KO BONG-JUN [kjdsports@joongang.co.kr]