Volvik Championship Sunday: Hannah Yun Outduels Alena Sharp for Breakthrough Win on Symetra Tour

Hannah Yun and Alena Sharp were locked in a duel over the final 18 holes of the Volvik Championship.  Neither fired the lowest rounds of the day--those belonged to Cydney Clanton (9-birdie 65), Alejandra Llaneza (6-birdie 67), and Birdie Kim (6-birdie 67)--but they both broke 70 while playing head-to-head in the final pairing with Hannah Jun, who fought back to tie Amelia Lewis for 4th, 1 shot behind Giulia Molinaro, the only player besides Yun and Sharp to get to double digits under par for the week.

Sharp started off hot with 4 birdies in her 1st 7 holes to get to -13.  Yun fought back with birdies on 1, 2, and 7; thanks to a bogey on the 4th, which snapped her bogey-free run at 20 holes, Yun found herself at -13 with 11 holes to play, too.  Both leaders bogeyed the par-4 8th and failed to birdie either the par-5 9th or par-5 10th, which brought Molinaro within 2 shots of them, but when Yun birdied the par-4 13th to return to -13, she opened up a 1-shot lead on Sharp and a 3-shot lead on Molinaro.  From there, it was a battle of nerves, as Yun and Sharp traded pars on 14...15...16...17....  It all came down to the 18th hole.  And Yun birdied it for her 3rd-straight round in the 60s and a 2-shot victory over Sharp!

Yun earned her 1st Symetra Tour victory with exquisite ball-striking.  She missed only 1 fairway all week and hit 16, 16, and 15 greens in her 3 rounds.  Combined with great putting, which allowed her to sink 17 birdies, she was just too much for the rest of the field to handle this week.

I'll be back with how this week affects the Race for the Card, but for now a huge congratulations to Hannah Yun!

[Update 1 (3:55 pm):  Yun gets $15K for her victory, bringing her to just shy of $25K for the season.  The Race for the Card will come down to the wire!]

[Update 2 (4:24 pm):  By my estimate, here are the players one win away from the top 10 of the money list, which is worth an LPGA card for 2014:

1. P.K. Kongkraphan $43.8K
2. Christine Song $38.8K
3. Cydney Clanton $37.0K
4. Sue Kim $36.9K
5. Marina Alex $35.5K
6. Hannah Jun $35.3K
7. Giulia Molinaro $33.9K
8. Olivia Jordan-Higgins $33.5K
9. Alena Sharp $33.2K
10. Jaclyn Sweeney $32.3K
-----------------------------------
11. Kim Kaufman $31.8K
12. Melissa Eaton $29.4K
13. Laura Kueny $28.5K
14. Wei-Ling Hsu $28.4K
15. Alejandra Llaneza $27.2K
16. Marissa Steen $26.8K
17. Kendall Dye $25.1K
18. Hannah Yun $24.6K
19. Jackie Stoelting $23.1K
20. Perrine Delacour $23.0K
21. Katy Harris $22.7K
22. Caroline Westrup $21.5K
23. Isabelle Boineau $21.4K
24. Jean Chua $21.4K
25. Samantha Richdale $21.3K
26. Courtney Massey $21.1K
27. Mitsuki Katahira $19.2K
28. Amelia Lewis $19.0K
29. Jaye Marie Green, $18.7K
30. Jessi Gebhardt $14.6K
31. Michelle Shin $14.4K
32. Ginger Howard $13.6K
33. Stefanie Kenoyer $13.6K

I'll correct any mistakes when the Symetra Tour updates its money list! [6:07 pm: done.]

[Update 3 (4:32 pm):  With $18,750 going to next week's winner of the Symetra Tour Championship, a lot can change 72 holes from now!]

[Update 4 (5:36 pm):  Here are the final-round notes from the tour.]

[Update 5 (6:30 pm):  Here's what it took to get to #10 on the money list in previous seasons:

2012:  $37.6K
2011:  $29.9K
2010:  $39.3K
2009:  $30.6K
2008:  $33.8K
2007:  $33.4K
2006:  $30.6K
2005:  $23.4K
2004:  $28.2K

Keep in mind that the LPGA started awarding cards to 10 players rather than 5 very recently.  Even though there tended to be several more events on the schedule in most of these years compared to this year, most of those seasons also had 1 or 2 dominant players who took home a high proportion of the winnings.  If someone in the top 9 doesn't win next week, the #1 player on tour this season will have won the smallest amount of money in the last decade.]