The summer of Haeran Ryu continues.
Ryu won her second straight major on Sunday at The Amundi Evian Championship, besting Brooke Henderson with a birdie on the first playoff hole.
“Feels like just unreal dream right now,” the South Korean player said after her win.
It was a stunning finish.
With beautiful Evian-les-Bains, France, as the backdrop, Ryu, Henderson and Aki Iwai found themselves tied at 18 under with two holes to go and the possibility of a three-person playoff on the horizon.
Henderson briefly dropped to 17 under after a bogey on the par-4 17th, but with a par-5 left to play, the Canadian star still had a chance, especially after a week that saw her card four eagles on Evian Resort Golf Club’s par 5s and a hole-in-one on the par-3 eighth in the final round.
Ryu had a relatively mundane round after her history-making 60 on Saturday — the lowest score in major history. On Sunday afternoon, it was all pars, save for a bogey on No. 8, heading into the 18th.
As the trio came up the 18th, Henderson surged, making another eagle to get to 19 under, and Ryu was finally able to get her putter dialed in, tying that 19-under mark.
“Today shots pretty good, but my putting is too bad today,” Ryu said. “And then I just thinking like, ‘Oh, God, please go in the hole, please.’ Every hole I just feels like pray.”
Iwai carded pars on the final three holes and missed the playoff in heartbreaking fashion. The 24-year-old was consoled by three-time major champion Lydia Ko after speaking to the press.
“Some win, some lose, right?” Iwai said, taking some positives from the experience. “But, yes, good experience for AIG [Women’s Open], good lesson.”
Meanwhile, 2022 Evian champion Henderson — who has two majors total to her name — and Ryu carted back up the 18th for their sudden-death playoff.
It was a roles-reversed situation off the tee in this repeat of 18, with Henderson missing the fairway and Ryu hitting it, positioning herself for a potential eagle.
Henderson has chipped in a couple times this week (some of those aforementioned par-5 eagles), but she wasn’t able to recreate that magic when her third shot landed just off the green, resulting in an up-and-down for par.
Ryu put herself on the green, albeit far away, with her second shot, and a two-putt was all she needed for her second birdie of the day and the win.
“Obviously very exciting to get into the playoff,” Henderson said. “Wish I had played a little bit better, but Haeran has been playing great. Congrats to her.”
Ryu, with her second major (and second in three weeks), joins Nelly Korda as the only other major champion this season. Korda won the first two, and Ryu won the most recent two. The final major of the season is the AIG Women’s Open, set for July 30-August 2 at Royal Lytham & St. Annes in Lancashire, England.
The 25-year-old Ryu now has five wins on the LPGA Tour since joining in 2023. Her $1.4 million payout from Evian brings her official career earnings to just over $9.9 million. She will also move to No. 2 in the Race to the CME Globe standings after earning 650 points in the LPGA’s season-long points competition.
