Linnea Strom has claimed her maiden LPGA Tour win after a sensational final round of 60 in the ShopRite LPGA Classic saw her finish a shot clear of Ayaka Furue and Megan Khang.
The Swede began the third and final round of the 54-hole contest joint last of those who made the cut on the leaderboard in T52, with Jenny Shin seven ahead of her at the top.
A few hours later, the situation had completely changed at the Bay Course in Seaview, New Jersey, thanks to the lowest-scoring round of the LPGA Tour season, and a new tournament record from Strom that surely no one saw coming.
After the first two holes, that likely included Strom, as she got off to a solid if unspectacular start with two pars. However, a sign of what was to come came shortly afterwards, with birdies at the third, fourth and fifth as she began making headway.
Strom claimed her fourth birdie of the day at the par-4 seventh, and if her form was beginning to make others take notice, she would have had their full attention following an eagle on the ninth.
On the back nine, her near-perfect round continued with further birdies on the 10th and 14th before a beautifully judged second shot on the 16th, which spun back to within a foot of the hole, led to yet another birdie that gave the lead.
Any thoughts the pressure of her rapid charge to the top of the leaderboard could affect her game were firmly put to one side with her eighth and ninth birdies on the par-3 17th and par-5 18th, which saw her head back to the clubhouse with a staggering four-shot lead on 14-under for the tournament after an 11-under on the day.
In the chasing pack were players of the caliber of former World No.1 Atthaya Thitikul and LPGA Tour winner Furue, who moved one behind with five to play following a birdie.
However, it was Khang who appeared most likely to challenge Strom helped by a birdie on the 15th which saw her join her at the top of the leaderboard. She immediately followed that up with her one and only bogey of the round, though, and two pars to finish thwarted her chances of a second LPGA Tour win.
Meanwhile, Furue failed to kick on from her birdie at the 13th as she finished with five successive pars to miss out on a playoff by one and hand Strom the title.
Such was the turnaround in Strom’s fortunes that she had been given a win probability of just 0.001% before she got her round underway. Regardless, the victory is undoubtedly the highest-profile of her career, with just two Epson Tour wins as a professional before the tournament.
Strom wasn’t the only Swede to pull off an improbable victory. Earlier in the day, fellow LPGA Tour pro Linn Grant won the Scandinavian Mixed in her homeland following a seven-under 65 after beginning the day 11 shots behind overnight leader Sebsatian Soderberg.
