South Korea’s Inbee Park won the first women’s Olympic golf title in 116 years on Saturday when she won by five strokes ahead of New Zealand’s Lydia Ko to take the gold. The top woman golfers in the world will return to North America for the Canadian Pacific Women’s Open this week but before we look to the future it’s important to look back at what happened on the PGA Tour and European Tour this past weekend. Here is a recap of the golf fantasy events from this past week.
Wyndham Championship
PGA Tour
We start our golf fantasy recap with Si Woo Kim. The South Korean won the Wyndham Championship by five strokes on Sunday to capture her first-career PGA Tour title. The 21-year-old closed with a 3-under 67 to finish at 21-under at the Sedgefield Country Club, tying the 72-hold record set eight years ago by Carl Pettersson. Kim’s strong performance included setting a tournament record when he shot a 60 in the second round. He earned 500 FedEx Cup points and just over $1 million in prize money by coming out on top in the regular season finale. Luke Donald recorded a 67 on Sunday to lock up a solo runner-up finish at 16-under, followed by Brandt Snedeker and Hideki Matsuyama tying for third at 15-under. The other notable story from the Wyndham Championship was the playoff picture as Whee Kim and Matt Jones both slipped out of the playoff field after missing the cut at this event. Meanwhile, Kyle Stanley and Shawn Stefani both elevated themselves in to the playoff when they finished at 12-under, moving in to the top-125 from No. 127 and No. 133 respectively this weekend. Next up is The Barclays this week with that tournament set to get underway on Thursday from the Bethpage State Park in Farmingdale, New York.
D+D Real Czech Masters
European Tour
Our golf fantasy recap begins with Paul Peterson. The American shot a 5-under 67 on Sunday to win the D+D Real Czech Masters by one stroke and earn his first victory on the European Tour. Peterson was locked in a battle with the defending champion Thomas Pieters when he birdied the par-3 16th hole to move to 15-under and he held on the remainder of the way to edge out the Belgian for the victory. Peterson, who had previously recorded only two top-10 finishes on the European Tour, actually began the round two strokes behind Pieters but rallied for an impressive comeback victory. Pieters failed to keep his hopes alive for an automatic place on Europe’s Ryder Cup team with the runner-up finish. Meanwhile, David Howell and Ryan Evans finished tied for third at 11-under while fellow Englishman Matthew Fitzpatrick recorded a solo fifth by finishing 10-under. Next up for the European Tour is the Made in Denmark tournament from the Himmerland Golf & Spa Resort in Farso, Denmark. Meanwhile, keep an eye out for the return of the LPGA Tour following their Olympics break as they head to the Priddis Greens Golf & Country Club in Alberta, Canada.
2016 Rio Olympics Women’s Golf
While the men played for their podium positions in the first week, the women took to the course in the second week. On Sunday, Inbee Park of South Korea sealed off the tournament with a five-under 66, giving her a comfortable five-shot win for the tournament. A lot of people had been expecting Lydia Ko to claim the gold as she’s been the best player in the LPGA over the last year and a half, but she was only able to come up with a second-place. China’s Shanshan Feng took the bronze in a little bit of a surprise. Thailand’s Ariya Jutanugarn was one of the favorites for the event but she had an absolutely terrible showing. She was 12 over through 13 holes and was clearly bothered by something, which proved to be a knee injury. She had been leading the tournament early on before the pain clearly altered her accuracy.
There was a lot of hope for Canadian Brooke M. Henderson among golf fantasy experts and she showed well with a seventh-place result, two strokes off of third place. Stacy Lewis, Amy Yang and Haru Nomua all finished one stroke back of Feng.
