Paula Reto carded a superb bogey-free six-under-par 65 in the final round on Sunday in the LPGA Tour’s Shoprite LPGA Classic in Galloway, New Jersey to pull off a top-10 finish in the 54-hole tournament.
After her opening round of six-under 65, she made a one-over 72 in her second round, but she put that behind her as soon as she had a run of three consecutive birdies from the third to the fifth in the final round. She maintained that momentum with a birdie on the ninth ahead of the turn, and made two more birdies on her way home, on the 15th and 18th for a tournament total of 10-under 203 and a share of seventh.
France’s Celine Boutier chased down a star-studded lead group with a bogey-free 63 to finish the tournament on 14-under. That gave her a one-stroke edge over Canada’s Brooke Henderson and the Korean pair of Jin Young Ko and Inbee Park who shared second.
For Reto, the big difference in her play after a tough second round came because she worked on her putting. “A lot of my bogeys yesterday and the day before was putting,” she said, “so I really tried to spend some time on putting yesterday, because I was three-putting I think five times yesterday and three or four times the day before.
“I thought if I could clean up there, I can probably not make too many bogeys, and I did for sure clean up the putting, which helped today. I just did a lot of distance control, like putts, 30-, 40-footers, because it’s hard to have shorter putts here because of how the greens bounce.
“I made sure to practice a lot of four- or five-footers, because those are the ones I was missing. I was running them by and not making the comebacks. Usually I’m good with the four- or five-footers, so did a lot of that and made sure I’m seeing my line as well.”
Ashleigh Buhai closed with a three-under-par 68 to finish at five-under for the tournament and a share of 34th.
