VIDEO: Sei Young Kim holes out for eagle to win Lotte Championship playoff
LPGA Tour

VIDEO: Sei Young Kim holes out for eagle to win Lotte Championship playoff

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Sei Young Kim won the LPGA Tour's Lotte Championship in dramatic fashion, holing out from 154 yards to win a sudden-death playoff against Inbee Park.

Kim's second shot to the water-guarded par-4 finishing hole landed just over the hazard, bounced twice and into the hole for an eagle. Kim had no idea at first that the ball had gone in the hole, but then celebrated in utter shock. Park, left with no choice but to match to continue the playoff, couldn't make her own eagle.

It was quite a turnaround in fortune for Kim, whose tee shot to the same hole at the end of regulation rolled too far and into a water hazard. She dropped, and, hitting three, her approach barely cleared the water. With her fourth shot from a mowed area just off the green, Kim holed out the chip for the par that secured her spot in the playoff with Park.

Kim's shot calls to mind the hole out Craig Parry made to win the Ford Championship at Doral in 2004.

It also conjured images of Jonathan Byrd winning the 2010 Justin Timberlake Shriners Hospitals for Children Open in Las Vegas with a walk-off ace.

With the win, Kim is the first player to win multiple LPGA Tour events this season. It's also her second playoff win of the year. Earlier in the season, Kim won the Pure Silk Bahamas LPGA Classic in a three-player playoff.

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