Rozner: Miracle shot save saves Park from The Gauntlet

You wanted drama? You got it.

You wanted a difficult, major championship examination? You got it.

You wanted The Gauntlet to matter on Sunday? Well, you got that, too.

Kemper Lakes offered a brilliant test of golf and the course delivered a victor worthy of the KPMG Women's PGA Championship.

On the second playoff hole, it was 24-year-old Sung Hyun Park capturing her second major win with a 9-foot birdie putt after So Yeon Ryu burned the edge on a 15-footer.

But that's not where Park won the PGA Championship.

It occurred about 90 minutes before that, when the tournament began in earnest at The Gauntlet, just as was expected, just as it should have been decided.

After a perfect tee shot on 16 and trailing Ryu by a shot, Park watched Ryu hit a magnificent approach to birdie distance and tried to stick one just over the front edge, but she came up short in a howling wind and it looked to all the golfing world like her tournament was over.

But somehow the ball stayed just out of the water. It was so close, however, that Park's caddie had to stand knee deep in the lake to keep track of where it was.

So stepping nearly into the water herself, with her feet in the swampy marsh and with seemingly no chance to get up and down, Park hit a miracle shot from the fescue and flopped it to kick-in distance.

It was a 1-in-100 wedge, bringing back memories of Bill Haas in 2011 at East Lake, when he made par on 17 from the water in a playoff, en route to the Tour Championship and the $10 million FedEx Cup.

"Since there was no water below the ball, I did what I do with a bunker shot," Park said. "So I felt like, 'I got this,' when I hit the shot."

Park made the miraculous par, but Ryu also delivered on her birdie putt and had a 2-shot lead going to the par-3 17th, with the wind swirling and the players guessing.

Still, a pair of pars - or maybe even par plus bogey - and the PGA Championship was over.

"I didn't know where her ball was," Ryu said of Park's incredible shot. "I was kind of surprised to see she actually hit it to the pin. I couldn't see the ball, so I thought maybe it was a tough one, but that was really brave.

"After she hit the shot, I was like, 'OK, she got that shot, and I will show my shot,' and then I made that birdie."

Off a big bird, Ryu went first at 17, but a huge gust of wind at about 30 mph came up just as she covered the ball, pushing the shot left and just short, hitting the wooden planks in front of the green.

"The biggest regret is 17," said Ryu, twice a major winner. "I was over the ball and I felt the wind, so I was going to go one club longer, and then I was like, 'I just want to stick to my Plan A.'

"I don't think it was a bad shot, but the ball drew more than I expected and then there was a really strong right-to-left wind."

She doubled while Park lipped out on a putt that would have put her in front, and both were tied at 10-under with last week's winner, Nasa Hataoka, who was on the range staying warm, hardly a problem in the searing heat.

After Park and Ryu narrowly missed birdie attempts on 18, they joined Hataoka for a three-way playoff, where all three players flirted with water in front of the 18th green and all three barely covered the front edge, landing safely on the green and giving them looks at birdie.

Truly impressive was their desire - all three of them - to fire directly at a dangerous pin in hopes of ending the playoff right there.

Don't tell these women they don't have the same guts as the men.

Park and Ryu drained their birdie putts on 18 and Hataoka was eliminated, so they went back to 16.

After their approach shots landed safely on the green, the skies opened, the weather siren went off and play was suspended for 20 minutes.

When they returned, Ryu narrowly missed a bird with nearly the same putt she made in regulation, and Park buried it to win her second major championship, only minutes before a ferocious thunderstorm hit Kemper Lakes.

So ended the longest test in the 64-year history of the Women's PGA Championship at 6,741 yards.

So ended the fourth straight women's major championship to require a playoff.

So ended what was a brilliant week of major championship golf at a major championship venue.

Here's hoping Chicago gets another one like it someday soon.

brozner@dailyherald.com

• Listen to Barry Rozner from 9 a.m. to noon Sundays on the Score's "Hit and Run" show at WSCR 670-AM and follow him @BarryRozner on Twitter.