Na Yeon Choi successfully defended her title at the LPGA Hana Bank Championship Presented by SK telecom. Choi carded 69-68-69=206 (-10) to defeat Vicky Hurst by two strokes.
"I am really happy to defend my title this year," Choi said. "There were a lot of expectations from the fans that I have to defend my title. In order to live up to those expectations, I had to let everything out on the course and concentrate on every shot.
That paid off."
Starting the day one shot back of third-round leader Kim, Choi made birdies on 10, 11 and 13 while Kim made four bogeys on holes 9-13. Repeat: Choi became the first player to win the same event in consecutive years since Lorena Ochoa won the Navistar LPGA Classic Presented by Monaco RV in 2008-09; she also did it earlier that year at the Tres Marias Championship.
Scorching: In her last 10 starts, Choi now has two wins, three seconds and two thirds. Her worst finish over that stretch is a tie for 16th. Money, money! With the $270,000 winner's check, Choi also overtakes Jiyai Shin for No. 1 on the money list ($1,742,028).
Consistently good: With her third-place finish, Song-Hee Kim now has 21 top-10s in her last 27 events.
