Jennifer Kupcho earns major glory at Chevron Championship

Jennifer Kupcho's first win on the LPGA Tour was a major breakthrough.

Kupcho hung on through a nervy back nine Sunday to win the Chevron Championship by two shots at Mission Hills Country Club in Rancho Mirage, Calif.

Kupcho entered Sunday with a six-stroke lead, and her 2-over-par 74 in the final round was still enough to stay ahead of the pack. She posted a 14-under 274 for the week, two better than second-place Jessica Korda.

The victory at the first major of the LPGA season included a traditional leap into Poppie's Pond near the 18th green, though hers will be the last such plunge. The event previously known as the Nabisco Dinah Shore, the Kraft Nabisco Championship and the ANA Inspiration will move to Houston next season, leaving its iconic home in the California desert.

Prior to Sunday, Kupcho's most notable win came as an amateur, when she won the inaugural Augusta National Women's Amateur in 2019. She said on the Golf Channel broadcast that she had doubts whether her professional breakthrough would come.

"Yeah, for sure," Kupcho said. "I've been so close a couple of times, so it's just really hard sometimes, and here I am. It's really exciting."

She was still stunned that first win came at a major, with a first prize of $750,000 out of the $5 million purse.

"A major is crazy," she said.

Kupcho played her first seven holes in 2 under before picking up a bogey at the par-3 eighth, her second of the round. She started to teeter early on the back nine and slipped back toward the pack with bogeys at Nos. 10, 13 and 14.

After recovering with a birdie at No. 15 that brought her to 16 under, Kupcho misfired on the par-3 17th tee, landing in thick rough. She would two-putt for bogey. At the par-5 18th, she made the green in three