When Lilia Vu arrived at St. Andrews’ 18th hole Sunday evening, she still had a slim chance to win her third major title. Several minutes later, she’d not only lost the AIG Women’s Open, but a brutal lip-out had cost her an enormous amount of money as well.
The 26-year-old American star, who broke out in 2023 with two major victories including at the Women’s Open, started the week as the defending champion and among the betting favorites.
She began the final round where she was expected to be: one shot behind 54-hole leader Jiyai Shin with a great opportunity to defend her Open title and further cement her place among golf’s elite. But by the back nine of Sunday’s final round, it looked like the only player ranked above Vu in the Rolex World Ranking, Nelly Korda, was intent on claiming a historic win for herself.
But when Korda made an ugly double bogey at the par-5 14th hole, suddenly Vu found herself tied for the lead at six under with only a few holes left to play. Korda eventually slipped out of contention with a bogey at 17. At around the same time, Lydia Ko drained a clutch birdie at 18 to complete a round of 69 and take the clubhouse lead at seven under.
Vu would need one birdie on her final two holes to force a playoff, and two birdies to win outright. At 17, she was only able to save par, giving her one last chance to keep her title hopes alive.
Vu was able to reach the green in two at the Old Course’s iconic closing hole. But with the centuries-old R&A clubhouse looming behind her, Vu left her mid-range birdie attempt a few feet short.
It was a disappointing end to a tremendous major campaign, or so everyone thought. With the chance of a playoff gone, Vu set up to hit her par putt, which would have given her a solo-second finish, good enough for an impressive paycheck of $939,026 from the record $9.5 million purse.
But tragically for her bank account if not for her career, Vu’s short par putt lipped out of the hole. The ensuing bogey gave her a one-over 73 for the day, dropping her to a final score of five under. It also dropped her from solo-second into a four-way tie for second.
Splitting the winnings with three other players proved incredibly costly for Vu. Her new paycheck was worth $594,759. Which means that the final-hole lip-out cost her a whopping $344,267.
To put it in perspective, the amount of money Vu lost was about $25,000 more than the next player on the leaderboard, Ariya Jutanugarn, earned for her solo-sixth finish ($319,336).
For her clutch win, the third major title of her Hall of Fame career, Ko took home a cool $1.425 million.
