Celine Boutier of France beat Georgia Hall of England with a birdie on the primary playoff gap on Sunday to win the LPGA Drive on Championship.

Boutier compelled a playoff by making a testy birdie putt on the par-5 18th to shut out a 4-under 68, matching Hall (65) at 20-under 268 within the LPGA’s first full-field occasion of the season.

Playing the 18th gap once more, neither golfer discovered the inexperienced with their second shot of the playoff. Boutier, chipping from almost the identical spot as she did in regulation brief and proper of the inexperienced, pitched to about 4 toes. Meanwhile, Hall hit her second shot right into a greenside bunker, blasted past the outlet and did not convert her birdie effort. That set the stage for Boutier’s profitable birdie putt.

Boutier had combined emotions about squaring off in a playoff towards — and beating — Hall, a former Solheim Cup teammate.

“I was honestly not looking forward to it,” Boutier stated. “It’s a bittersweet feeling because you obviously want to win, but at the same time I really think she’s an amazing player. ... She is a really good friend of mine. So I feel like it’s not always easy, but also I’m a little bit competitive, so I feel like I definitely want to win as well. But it’s not the greatest feeling.”

With the victory, the 29-year-old Boutier claimed her third LPGA victory and have become the winningest French participant on tour, transferring previous Patricia Meunier-Lebouc and Anne-Marie Palli. She had beforehand received the 2019 ISPS Handa Vic Open and 2021 ShopRite Classic.

Boutier posted two early birdies at Nos. 2-3 and gave a stroke again with bogey on the sixth. On the again 9, she made a transfer with birdies at 11 and 13, and none extra essential than the clutch birdie putt on the 18th, her 72nd gap.

“I was a little bit nervous, but not as much as I expected or I thought I was going to be,” she stated. “I feel like I was just really focused. I had a really tough chip from the right with a break from right to left, so I was just trying to get as close as I could. Then the 5- or 6-footer was definitely a little bit of pressure.”

After three birdie-filled rounds at Superstition Mountain Golf Club, the ultimate spherical began with 17 gamers inside three photographs of the lead and stayed to kind.

Hall made probably the most of her fourth spherical, posting one in all three 7-under par scores, together with going 6 beneath on the again 9 to take a clubhouse lead, ending about an hour forward of Boutier.

Hall, who was searching for her first win for the reason that 2020 Cambia Portland Classic, which adopted a victory on the Women’s British Open in 2018, tried to search out some comfort in her near-miss.

“Obviously fantastic to get to the position I was in,” the 26-year-old main winner stated. “I knew I had to shoot low today, and obviously gutted about the playoff.”

Japan’s Ayaka Furue closed with a 65 and completed third at 19 beneath. Na Rin An of South Korea was alone in fourth at 18 beneath with a closing 67, whereas American Ally Ewing (67) and South Korea’s Jin Young Ko (68) had been one other stroke again in fifth.