Lilia Vu powered to her second major championship win of the year with a dominant final round 67 to win by six strokes at the AIG Women's Open at Walton Heath.
The 25-year old American, who won her first major title at the Chevron Championship in April, began the day tied for the lead with home favourite Charley Hull but wasn't long asserting her dominance as the Englishwoman fell way.
Within four holes, she had opened up a three shot gap, with a birdie on the second combined with Hull's stuttering bogeys on the third and fourth.
Ally Ewing, meanwhile, who led by five strokes on Friday evening before stumbling on Saturday, fell out of the running with three early bogeys. She wound up finished on four-under in tied-sixth.
As her rivals faltered, Vu turned on the afterburners with three birdies in four holes between the ninth and twelfth. She incurred her only dropped stroke on 15 before immediately responding with a birdie on 16.
And she would finish with a fitting flourish, draining a birdie putt on the 72nd hole to record her second successive 67 and a resounding six stroke win.
What a way to win it!
— AIG Women's Open (@AIGWomensOpen) August 13, 2023
A stunning six stroke victory for @TheLiliaVu 🏆 pic.twitter.com/Hk3yRIPZpo
Hull, who finished joint-second at the US Women's Open at Pebble Beach in July, was unable to kick-start her challenge until a brilliant eagle at the 11th.
Play was briefly interrupted when protesters let off flares on the 17th after Vu and Hull had both completed the hole, with those involved led away by police and security staff.
That took her to within two shots of Vu, but two more dropped shots at the 15th and 17th scuppered her hopes.
Jiyai Shin was alone in third at seven under after a 70 on Sunday, with fellow South Koreans Amy Yang (70) and Hyo Joo Kim (74) tied for fourth at six under.
Leona Maguire finished a low-key week on a high note with successive birdies on the two closing holes to post 71 and climb into a tie for 30th.
The world no.13 was definitively ruled out of the running after a disappointing 74 on Saturday but she finished with her sole under par round of the week, with three birdies on the inward nine on 11, 17 and 18 to finish one over par for the tournament.
"I felt like I didn't do an awful lot wrong this week," Maguire told RTÉ Sport's Greg Allen afterwards. "Just maybe didn't do quite enough right. Didn't have enough birdies. It's that kind of golf course, a bounce here and a bounce there and it could have been a lot different.
"It was nice to I suppose finish with the best round of the week of Sunday."
It was a somewhat grimmer story for Stephanie Meadow, who began the day inside the top-20, but endured a horror-show around the turn en route to a 79, winding up on six over for the championship, down the field in tied-56th.
The Antrim golfer, who finished tied-3rd at this year's Women's PGA Championship, began in wobbly fashion with two opening bogeys but things took a drastic turn for the worse, with three bogeys and a double bogey in a five hole stretch between the 8th and 12th left her struggling to break 80.
With additional reporting: PA
