Gina Kim struck a shot at the par-4 fifth hole of the 2026 Dow Championship and thought she’d hit a good one. Good enough for birdie, maybe. “I knew I hit a really good shot,” she said, “and I was thinking, ‘Oh, OK, maybe I’ll tap in for birdie.'” Then the ball disappeared into the hole. Eagle. Her playing partner Yana Wilson went ballistic. The crowd went with her.
The Shot That Set the Tone
The Dow Championship is the LPGA Tour’s marquee team event — a best-ball format where partners combine forces across 72 holes. Kim and Wilson were locked in a tight final round when Kim hit the fairway hole-out on five. “It really set the tone for the day,” she said. It did more than that. The pair went on to shoot 8-under 62 in best-ball play on Sunday and won by two strokes.
Two First Titles, One Shot
Neither Kim nor Wilson had won on the LPGA Tour before June 15, 2026. The Dow Championship awarded individual titles to both partners — so the hole-out eagle didn’t just win the tournament, it handed two players their first professional victories simultaneously. You can’t script it better than that.
Kim didn’t even watch it go in. She’d already accepted she was getting a tap-in birdie. Sometimes the ball just takes over.
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