Paula Reto won Canadian Women’s Open by one stroke

• Paula Reto wins the Canadian Women’s Open by one stroke.
• Reto shot a four-under-par 67 to finish with a score of 19-under 265.
• Nelly Korda and Choi Hye-jin tied for second with Lydia Ko in third.

Paula Reto, from South Africa, won the Canadian Women’s Open on Sunday by one stroke for the first time in her nine-year LPGA career.

The 32-year-old from Cape Town made five birdies on the front nine, which helped her shoot a four-under-par 67 and finish with a score of 19-under 265 after 72 holes at Ottawa Hunt and Golf Club.

In her 157th LPGA start, Reto broke her dry spell.

“Dream come true for sure,” Reto said. “I’m really happy and it has been such a long time. I was like, ‘I hope one day I will win,’ and it came true. I’m really so excited.”

Reto shot a course-record score of 62 on Thursday. She won her first professional title on the Sunshine Tour in her home country in February.

The third-ranked American Nelly Korda, who would have been number one if she had won, also shot a 67 and tied for second with Choi Hye-jin of South Korea with a score of 266.

Lydia Ko of New Zealand finished with four straight birdies to shoot a 63 and finish fourth with a score of 267. An Na-rin of South Korea finished fifth with a score of 268.

Choi and An, who are both new to the LPGA, were tied for the lead after 54 holes, but Choi started with 14 pars and shot 69, while An fell back with a double bogey on the seventh and a triple bogey on the eighth on her way to a 72.

Reto went over the green on the par-3 17th hole, but he chipped the ball to within a few inches of the cup and tapped it in for a par. This kept him in the lead going into the par-5 18th hole.

Reto’s approach shot went into the right rough on a slope. She then punched out to 15 feet from the hole.

Choi then missed a long eagle putt over a ridge that would have tied her for the lead. She had to settle for her ninth top-10 finish of the season instead.

Reto missed her putt for a birdie, then tapped in to win.

“I was so nervous coming to the last hole,” Reto said. “I was like, ‘Just calm your nerves.’

“I kind of hit a bad 3-wood and that rough shot over there kind of saved me. I was just commiting to it, trying to keep it simple.”

Reto started off one stroke behind the leader, but he quickly caught up with a birdie on the first hole and a chip that landed just inches from the hole to set up a birdie on the third.

After making a birdie on the par-5 sixth hole, Reto made a six-foot birdie putt at the par-3 eighth hole and a long birdie putt at the par-5 ninth hole to take a three-stroke lead at the turn.

With a birdie at 11 and an eagle at 12, Olympic champion Korda moved up to second place. She made birdies on holes 15 and 16 to make up for her bogey on hole 14. Reto also made a bogey on hole 14, which cut her lead to one stroke and set up the final drama.

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