(Reuters) - World number two Lydia Ko has held off a fast finishing Stacy Lewis and Ryu So-yeon to claim her third Canadian Pacific Women's Open and eighth LPGA title in a playoff in Vancouver on Sunday.
New Zealand's Ko could only muster an even-par-72 in the final round at Vancouver Golf Club to finish at 12-under-par, allowing Lewis to catch her after the American shot 67, but Ko prevailed in the opening hole of sudden death.
Lewis found trouble in the left rough and was unable to save par leaving Ko with a short putt to win the title for a third time, the first time as a professional having won back-to-back in 2012-13 as an amateur.
"It's been such an amazing week. I made some really good up and downs on the front nine but I just couldn't get anything going and I wasn't hitting anything close," Ko told reporters.
"Obviously Stacy played awesome and so did the other girls so I knew I needed to play consistent and that's what I tried to do."
Defending champion Ryu set the early pressure with a scintillating bogey-free 64 to finish at 11-under, tied third with fellow Korean Kim Sei-young (68) before Lewis one upped her.
Ko birdied the third hole but bogeyed the ninth before grinding out nine successive pars.
The 18-year-old had a 10-foot birdie chance on the 17th hole to take the lead after a lucky bounce out of the rough but missed on the high side.
After her approach to 18 finished a long way from the hole she faced a nervous two-putt to make extra holes but almost drained the monster putt for the win.
A similar lag in sudden death was enough when Lewis missed her 10-foot par save.
Canadian teenager Brooke Henderson, fresh off her maiden LPGA win, finished at four under in a tie for 23rd in her quest to be the first Canadian winner since Jocelyne Bourassa won the inaugural event in 1973.