BEDMINSTER, N.J. —After just two bogeys through 71 holes of the 2017 U.S. Women’s Open and leading the first three rounds, Shanshan Feng ended the final round with a triple-bogey on the 18th hole to lose her chance at forcing a playoff with subsequent winner Sung Hyun Park.
Park was in the clubhouse with the lead at 11-under while Feng’s putting meltdown began.
Feng needed an eagle on the par-5 18th hole to tie Park and send it to a playoff. She had birdied it the day before, but making eagle was a longshot.
The 27-year-old flew her approach shot over the green to lose the eagle opportunity. Feng followed up by chipping it short and watched the ball roll nearly back to her feet. After finally getting the ball on the green, she missed her bogey putt then suffered a lip-out before getting the ball into the hole. Feng left the green with a triple-bogey 8, and T5 finish.
“I think overall, before the last hole, I did pretty well,” Feng said after her 6-under round. “I did a good job hanging in right there because my putting was not really that great.”
Dressed in her signature cow-patterned ensemble, Feng struggled with putting over the weekend, missing key birdie putts in both the third and fourth rounds in which she made a single birdie in each.
Feng, a seven-time winner on the LPGA, held the lead through three rounds. There hadn’t been a wire-to-wire winner without ties since Hollis Stacy in 1977. Feng, a bronze medalist at the 2016 Olympic Games in Rio, was also bidding to become the first Chinese player to win the U.S. Women’s Open.
Feng’s T5 at the U.S. Women’s Open is her sixth top-10 finish this year. She won the Volvik Championship earlier this year by one stroke over Park and Minjee Lee.