Sagstrom ends 5-year drought with LPGA Match Play title – Golf Australia Magazine – The Women’s Game

Perhaps it was fitting after the world’s top-ranked players fell one after another at the picturesque but demanding Shadow Creek course in Las Vegas that a player ranked 67th claimed the $US300,000 winner’s prize .

Sagstrom’s other win came in 2020 at the Gainbridge LPGA at Boca Rio.

The Swede took the lead for good in Sunday’s final with a par at the par-5 16th hole as U.S Solheim Cup star Coughlin made a double bogey.

Sagstrom was pushed to the limits throughout the closing stages of the tournament.

She survived a 19-hole round-of-16 match against Carlota Ciganda on Saturday and then had to wait more than two hours as Celine Boutier and Ashleigh Buhai went at it over 28 holes. 

Then it became another marathon of a match as Sagstrom and Boutier were tied through 17 as darkness set in. The match was suspended, and Sagstrom finished up early Sunday morning with a 19th-hole quarter-finals victory.

Sagstrom then took out 12th-ranked Angel Yin 4 and 2 in the semi-finals. 

Coughlin, ranked 17th, also had to tough it out.

She played in at least 18 holes in every match, a total of 127 compared to 72 for a traditional stroke-play tournament. 

Coughlin was 3-down in her previous two matches before rallying to win, including a 1-up quarter-final victory over Australia’s Steph Kyriacou on Saturday and another 1-up win over Ariya Jutanugarn in the semis earlier on Sunday.

In a battle of 32-year-olds, Sagstrom had a four-hole lead after just six holes when Coughlin bogeyed No. 2 and the Swede rolled off three consecutive birdies beginning at No. 4. 

But then the match changed, with a suddenly shaky Sagstrom missing off the tee and failing to navigate the lightning-quick greens that took even well-struck approach shots into the rough.

Couglin claimed five of the next six holes to take the lead. Though she did her part with a pair of birdies, Coughlin also didn’t have to do anything spectacular as Sagstrom carded three bogeys and two doubles over that stretch.

Then Coughlin bogeyed the par-3 13th, and Sagstrom made par to pull back even, which is where the match stood until the 16th.

Both players failed to stay out of the rough, with Coughlin even twice chipping from about the same spot after the ball rolled back on her. 

Coughlin finally conceded the hole after her 30-foot putt went well past and the double bogey put Sagstrom back in the lead.