Kim Hyo-joo wins Ascendant LPGA with wire-to-wire run

Korea’s Kim Hyo-joo won her sixth LPGA title on Sunday, finishing 13-under-par, 271, in a wire-to-wire run at the Ascendant LPGA tournament in Texas.

Korea's Kim Hyo-joo plays her shot from the 16th tee during the final round of The Ascendant LPGA benefiting Volunteers of America at Old American Golf Club in The Colony, Texas, on Sunday. [AFP/YONHAP]

Korea’s Kim Hyo-joo won her sixth LPGA title on Sunday, finishing 13-under-par, 271, in a wire-to-wire run at the Ascendant LPGA tournament in Texas.

Kim came well ahead of Thailand’s Atthaya Thitikul and Bianca Pagdanganan of the Philippines, who tied for second place, each with a score of nine-under-par.

Kim's victory earned her $270,000 — nearly 360 million won — bringing her season’s total winnings to $2,014,978, or about 2.7 billion won.

It marked Kim’s first LPGA title since last April, when she won the 2022 Lotte Championship in Hawaii at 11-under-par, 277. It’s a strong comeback for Kim, who competed last week at the Walmart NW Arkansas Championship but finished tied for 48th-place, with a six-under-par, 207.

Kim, currently ranked seventh globally, is the third Korean golfer to win an LPGA title this season. While Kim ended with an unimpressive run in Arkansas last week, Korea’s Ryu Hae-ran won the tournament, carding 19-under-par, 194, to claim her first-ever LPGA title.

Korea’s Ko Jin-young has bagged two titles this season, winning the HSBC Women's World Championship in March for the second-consecutive year in Singapore, and the Cognizant Founders Cup in New Jersey, in May.

Kim, 28, made her LPGA debut during the 2014 season, winning her first title at the Evian Championship at 19 years old. She has since won six total Tour titles across nine seasons.

Kim’s Sunday win made this season her third-consecutive year with at least one title.

Kim also represented Korea as part of the national women’s golf team during the postponed Tokyo Olympics in 2021, but all four Korean golfers missed out on a chance to medal with Kim finishing tied for 15th.

The LPGA Tour continues with the Buick LPGA Shanghai at Qizhong Garden Golf Club in Shanghai, China on Thursday.

BY MARY YANG [mary.yang@joongang.co.kr]