When Lilia Vu reached the 18th hole at St. Andrews on Sunday night, she still had a small chance of winning her third major title. A few minutes later, not only had she lost the AIG Women’s Open, but a brutal lip-out had also cost her an enormous amount of money.

The 26-year-old American star, who broke through in 2023 with two major wins, including the Women’s Open, began the week as defending champion and was among the betting favorites.

She began the final round where she was expected to: one stroke behind 54-hole leader Jiyai Shin with a great chance to defend her Open title and further cement her place among golf’s elite. But on the back nine of Sunday’s final round, it looked as though the only player ranked above Vu in the Rolex World Ranking, Nelly Korda, was about to claim a historic victory.

But when Korda made a nasty double bogey on the par-5 14th, Vu suddenly found himself tied for the lead at six under par with only a few holes left to play. Korda eventually lost the title with a bogey on the 17th. Around the same time, Lydia Ko holed a crucial birdie on the 18th, completing a round of 69 and taking the clubhouse lead at seven under par.

Needing a birdie on her final two holes to force a playoff and two birdies to win outright, Vu could only save par at 17, giving her one final chance to keep her title hopes alive.

Vu managed to reach the green on the iconic final hole of the Old Course in two shots. But with the century-old R&A clubhouse behind her, Vu missed her mid-range birdie attempt by several feet.

It was a disappointing end to a great major season, or so everyone thought. With the chance of a playoff gone, Vu prepared to hit her par putt that would have put her in second place alone, good enough for an impressive $939,026 paycheck from the record $9.5 million purse.

But tragically, if not for her career then for her bank account, Vu’s short par putt landed just wide of the hole. The ensuing bogey gave her a 73-stroke, one-over-par finish for the day, dropping her to a final score of five under par and dropping her from sole second place to a shared second place with four others.

Splitting the winnings with three other players proved incredibly costly for Vu. Her new paycheck was worth $594,759, meaning that being eliminated on the final hole cost her a whopping $344,267.

To put it in perspective: The amount of money that Vu lost was about $25,000 more than the next player on the leaderboard, Ariya Jutanugarn, earned for her sole sixth place ($319,336).

For her decisive victory, the third major title of her Hall of Fame career, Ko took home a whopping $1.425 million.

Kevin Cunningham

Golf.com Publisher

As GOLF.com’s senior producer, Cunningham edits, writes and publishes articles on GOLF.com and manages the brand’s e-newsletters, which reach more than 1.4 million subscribers each month. As a former intern, he also keeps GOLF.com running beyond the breaking news and service content from our reporters and writers, and works with the technical team to develop new products and innovative ways to provide an engaging website for our audience.