Eun-Hee Ji wins U.S. Women’s Open

The magical finish ended a comeback in which the slight, 5-foot-4 South Korean showed the toughness of a gladiator, carding birdies on three of her final eight holes.

On a picture-postcard day in the Lehigh Valley, Ji equaled par 71 for a 284 total, a stroke better than Candie Kung and 2 ahead of In-Kyung Kim and Cristie Kerr, the leader after 36 and 54 holes who couldn't quite finish the job.

"I didn't even dream about winning this tournament," Ji said through an interpreter. "But I did it, and I think this is going to be one of the most memorable moments in my life."

The moment of truth for her yesterday came at the 10th hole, which played at 242 yards and dared players to take a shot at driving the green.

Ji tried but wound up in a left fairway bunker. She only advanced her ball to a greenside bunker and then barely got out to the rough. A chip and two putts equaled a double-bogey 6, and she fell 3 shots behind Kerr.

The double bogey, she said, "actually gave me an opportunity to sort of calm myself down, and I think it was one of the factors of winning the tournament."

Huh?

"Up until that point, Cristie was so far ahead, and I didn't think anyone was going to be able to catch up to her," Ji said. "But basically cleared my mind and I said, 'Let's go and play out the rest of the round.' "

Birdies followed, on a four-foot putt at the 13th, and a 50-foot bomb at No. 14. When Kung bogeyed 17, Ji held a share of the four-way tie with Kung, Kerr and Kim.

Kung ended her day at 1-over 285 after a 69, and Ji came to 18 knowing a par would get her into a playoff. She drove into the fairway and hit a 6-iron approach 20 feet left and slightly above the hole.

"Right before hitting the putt, I was nervous to the point where my hands were shaking," Ji said. "I knew the worst possible scenario was the playoff so I cleared my mind and thought, 'Let's give it a try.' Then it just went in."

It was the first Women's Open decided on a birdie at the 72d hole since Birdie Kim holed out a bunker shot in 2005 at Cherry Hills.

"That's as good as it gets, rolling in that putt," said a calm but disappointed Kerr, who played with Ji in the final pairing.

Kerr fell out of the four-way tie with a three-putt bogey at the 16th, and her 75 dropped her in a tie for third at 286 with Kim, who fired a 70.

Kung, 27, a native of Taiwan now living in Allen, Texas, leapt into contention Saturday with a 68 and sustained that pace yesterday. But after making a clutch 10-foot putt to save par at 16, Kung plunked her tee ball on the 126-yard 17th into the left bunker and made bogey.

Still, her day looked good enough, at least until Ji's heroics.

"There's nothing I can do," Kung said. "It's over. I had a lot of very good breaks out there today, made some very good putts coming in. Nothing I can do."

While Kung said she didn't look at a scoreboard all day, Ji looked at almost every one, from first hole to last.

"I saw Candie was 1 over so I figured, let's try to make up the ground as much as I can," Ji said. "If I could get to 1 over or better, that would have been fantastic. That was my mind-set."

She did better than that, and found herself at the 18th green accepting the Bud Semple Trophy as champion.

It didn't seem likely of happening some two hours before but, as anyone will tell you, that's golf.

Contact staff writer Joe Juliano at 215-854-4494 or jjuliano@phillynews.com.