Sei Young Kim aces 76-yard par-3 17th to take clubhouse lead at ShopRite LPGA
Sei Young Kim aced the small but mighty 17th at the ShopRite LPGA Classic to post the clubhouse lead. The 32-year-old South Korean holed out from 76 yards on the penultimate hole with a pitching wedge, clanking it off the flagstick and into the cup.
She followed it with a birdie on the closing par 5 at Seaview's Bay Course to post a 6-under 65 and get to 12 under for the tournament. Kim is a 12-time winner on the LPGA, though winless since 2020.
"I hit the right number and I saw the bounce, one, and in," said Kim. "I was like, wow. My skin everywhere was goosebump."
At the time of Kim's ace, the par-3 17th was ranked 15th in difficulty on Sunday with a scoring average 2.84. As Kim finished up her round, the leader, Jennifer Kupcho, was just making the turn on a rainy, windy, and chilly afternoon near Atlantic City.
Kim was rolling along with birdies on six of her first 13 holes before a double-bogey on the 14th and bogey on the 15th seemingly dropped her out of contention.
"It was like a rollercoaster, up and down, up and down," said Kim. "Yeah, back nine starting four hole I made three in a row birdie. My thoughts like it could be win, possibly.
"That thinking made me a little bit nervous. That's why my tee shot hole 14 goes way right."
The ace on the 17th was the third of her career, with two coming on the LPGA and one on the Korean LPGA.
After the round, Kim changed her flight to see how the rest of the afternoon unfolds and prepare for a possible playoff.
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