Ally Ewing outlasts Sophia Popov to win LPGA Match Play event

Ally Ewing outlasts Sophia Popov to win LPGA Match Play event

Ally Ewing sneaked onto the 2019 U.S. Solheim Cup team as an alternate when a bad back kept Stacy Lewis from playing in the competition.

She won’t have any worries about being a full-fledged member of the 2021 team after walking away as the inaugural champion of the Bank of Hope LPGA Match Play on Sunday at Shadow Creek.

Ewing beat Sophia Popov 2 and 1 in a final that showed how much fatigue had set in after seven rounds over five days in the heat on a difficult course.

After six rounds of excellent golf by Ewing and Popov to reach the championship match, it was ironic that it was decided when the pair posted matching double bogeys on the par-3 17th.

“I didn’t foresee a 5 getting it done, but it did. It’s just a tough hole,” Ewing said. “But that’s match play. I still had to make a 3- or 4-footer to get it done.”

Popov didn’t look like the same player Sunday afternoon, winning one hole and playing the 17 holes in 5 over.

“I’m just a little bit sad that I couldn’t play my best this afternoon, and I know a little bit was fatigue,” Popov said. “I just hit too many bad iron shots on the front nine and still I was right there.”

The win was Ewing’s second in seven months and extends her run of 19 consecutive cuts made in LPGA events. It moves her into the conversation of the top U.S. players and would seem to make her a lock for the Solheim Cup team in September.

“It’s super exciting to represent the United States. The first time was unbelievable,” she said. “So playing it again would mean the world. I don’t know what the team will shake out to be, but certainly know that the American team will be a loaded team and hopefully I’m fortunate enough to be on it.”

One day after eliminating Danielle Kang in the quarterfinals in the best match of the week, Ewing came out Sunday with confidence she could go all the way.

She never trailed in her semifinal win over Ariya Jutanugarn, a 3 and 2 win, and never trailed against Popov.

The key moment in the final came on the 14th hole, with Ewing nursing a 1-up lead and the momentum having swung to Popov. But Ewing took it back, making a 65-footer for birdie to go 2-up and get a renewed pep in her step.

She made a 20-footer Saturday on that same hole for birdie against Kang and a 40-footer Sunday morning against Jutanugarn.

“I certainly wasn’t trying to make it,” Ewing said of the bomb in the final. “A putt of that range you’re just trying to give it good speed and get it right there around the hole. But the line and the speed matched, and it rolled in.”

With all of the other players long gone by Sunday afternoon, Ewing had a small victory celebration on the 17th green. Among the celebrants were Amy Olson, who hung around to watch her good friend win, and her husband, Charlie Ewing.

The win came on the Ewing’s first wedding anniversary.

“I certainly didn’t feel left out,” Ewing said of the celebration, which included a few family friends. “And I know my phone has been blowing up with texts.”

Ewing and Popov had the course to themselves Sunday afternoon when the consolation match did not take place. Shanshan Feng, who lost to Popov in the semifinals, had enough golf for the week and forfeited the match to Jutanugarn.

All of the players head to San Francisco for this week’s U.S. Women’s Open at an equally difficult Olympic Club.

Popov has already changed her plans to let her body rest. Ewing and Feng were considering it, too.

“I can give my feet a little break tomorrow,” Popov said. “I technically have a practice round scheduled tomorrow afternoon, but that’s not happening.”

Greg Robertson is a freelance reporter who covers golf for the Review-Journal. He can be reached at robertsongt@gmail.com.