- Golfscale Newsletter
- Posts
- Lilia Vu wins 2nd Major
Lilia Vu wins 2nd Major
Vu wins The Women's Open at Walton Heath, Glover wins for second straight week, Cam Smith and the Aussies claim victory on LIV
Jack Middlebrook
August 14, 2023
Winnerโs Circle
LIV Bedminster
FedEx St. Jude Championship
Women's Open
Pinnacle Bank Championship
Doosan E&C We've Championship
NEC Karuizawa 72 Golf Tournament
The Womenโs Open
Lilia Vu bookends the Major season with a victory at The Womenโs Open at Walton Heath. Vu claimed her first major with a win at the Chevron Championship and has now added a second three months later. She showcased her ball-striking and consistency with a pair of 67s on the weekend to win by 6.
Vu took control of the tournament Sunday. Starting the day tied with Hull, Vu shot a smooth two under on the difficult front nine while Hull struggled out of the gates. After stretching the lead to 4 shots heading into the back nine, Vu closed out the tournament with four more birdies on her final nine holes.
The win also moves Lilia Vu to number one in the Rolex Rankings, ahead of fellow American Nelly Korda.
Following Vu was England's Charley Hull, finishing second. Hull was the local favorite, and hearing the British crowds cheer her on was awesome. Unfortunately, she made a pair of early bogeys to fall back and was left battling from behind all day. Hull flashed brilliance with an eagle on the 11th, holing out from the bunker. The eagle brought her within three shots of Vu, but she couldnโt get any closer.
What a moment this was!
โ AIG Womenโs Open (@AIGWomensOpen)
4:22 PM โข Aug 13, 2023
The solo second was Hullโs best major performance of her career, and she took home $828,414.
Outside of Hull, nobody else threatened the lead on Sunday. Jiyai Shin, the two-time Open Champion, finished third, while Allisen Corpuz had a solid final round 69 to get inside the top 10.
LIV Bedminster
Cam Smith took the individual win for the second time in the last three LIV events. He won by seven shots while leading the All-Aussie Ripper GC to their first team title.
As expected, there were shoeys for the Aussies on the podium.
YOUR TEAM CHAMPS!!! ๐
Doing a shoey to celebrate ๐คฃ๐
#RipperGC#LIVGolf
โ Ripper GC (@rippergc_)
11:10 PM โข Aug 13, 2023
Anirban Lahiri was the closest competitor after a second-round 64, but Lahiri couldnโt get anything going on Sunday to close the gap on Cam Smith.
LIV is off now until September 22nd, the week before the Ryder Cup, for LIV Chicago.
PGA Tour - FedEx St. Jude Championship
Lucas Glover clinched his second consecutive win on the PGA Tour. Glover rode a hot putter on Sunday to get into a playoff with Patrick Cantlay. Glover won in the playoff with a par after Cantlay faltered with a drive into the water on the first playoff hole. Glover's win pocketed him a cool $3.6 million and moved him to the 4th spot in the FedEx Cup standings. He now looks ahead with potential eyes on the Ryder Cup scene in Rome.
Patrick Cantlay finished Sunday with a bogey-free 64 to make it a playoff in Memphis. While Cantlay has been winless this year, he now has seven top 10s and has made nearly $10 million in 2023 alone. The playoff loss puts him one spot behind Glover in the FedEx Cup standings at 5th.
Many big names were chasing Glover on Sunday, including Spieth, McIlroy, Homa, and Fleetwood. All were on the front page of the leaderboard at some point but came up short. Of those chasing, Tommy Fleetwood came the closest with a lengthy birdie try on the last that just missed. Fleetwood still remains searching for his first win on the PGA Tour.
With the playoffs continuing next week in Chicago, we now see the field narrowed to the Top 50 in the FedEx Cup. Both Cam Davis (T6) and Hideki Matsuyama (T16) played their way into next weekโs field at the BMW Championship after starting the tournament outside the top 50.