Hall loses to Boutier in LPGA Drive On play-off

-20 C Boutier (Fra), G Hall (Eng); -19 A Furue (Jpn); -18 NR An (Kor); -17 A Ewing (US), JY Ko (Kor)
Selected: -16 C Hull (Eng); -13 S Meadow (NI); –12 J Ewart (Eng); -11 M Reid (Eng); -4 B Law (Eng)
Final leaderboard

England’s Georgia Hall lost out to France’s Celine Boutier in a play-off at the LPGA Drive On Championship.

Hall, 26, who shot a joint-best final round of 65, narrowly missed her own birdie attempt in the play-off.

Japan’s Ayaka Furue finished third on 19-under in the tour’s first full-field event of the season in Arizona.

Boutier held the lead after three rounds at Superstition Mountain Golf & Country Club and set up a play-off after carding a four-under 68.

Hall fired seven birdies and an eagle during her seven-under round but former Solheim Cup team-mate Boutier birdied the par-five 18th to take the tournament to an extra hole.

“I was honestly not looking forward to it,” Boutier said of facing Hall in the play-off.

“It’s a bittersweet feeling because you obviously want to win, but at the same time I really think she’s an amazing player.

“She is a really good friend of mine. So I feel like it’s not always easy, but also I’m a little bit competitive, so I feel like I definitely want to win as well. But it’s not the greatest feeling.”

Hall said: “Obviously [it was] fantastic to get to the position I was in. I knew I had to shoot low today, and obviously [I’m] gutted about the play-off.”