Lilia Vu wins 1st major at Chevron Championship in playoff

THE WOODLANDS, Texas: Lilia Vu relied on her grandfather’s steady hand and calm demeanor to keep her grounded during difficult times.

He died in 2020, but on Sunday at the Chevron Championship with a chance to win her first major, Vu’s thoughts of her grandfather helped her once again. “I was getting really upset on the course, and I just had to remind me, Grandpa is with you,” she said. “And he’d be really disappointed if you were getting upset like this and that you didn’t get your act together.” With his memory in her head, Vu finished strong with two straight birdies, then birdied the first playoff hole to beat Angel Yin in a dramatic finish on Sunday at The Club at Carlton Woods. Yin’s second shot came up short and left and splashed into the pond guarding the par-5 18th hole. Vu, after a huge tee shot, hit her approach safely just over the green. She went with putter from off the green and came up well short, but she converted the birdie from about 10 feet for the victory. “I knew on that last putt, all I had to do was just do my routine, read the putt how I usually do, and just hit this putt because I’ve hit that putt a million times,” Vu said. “And I knew I could make it.”

The 25-year-old Californian won for the second time on the LPGA Tour and took a celebratory leap into the pond, a tradition borrowed from this tournament’s former venue at Mission Hills in the California desert. Vu closed with a 4-under 68 for a four-day total of 10-under 278, then waited as other contenders — including Yin — faltered. But Yin, after bogeys on the 16th and 17th holes, birdied the 18th to force the playoff. “Obviously in the playoff hole, I just didn’t hit a good shot,” Yin said. “It just kind of spoke a lot about today.” Vu