The Amundi Evian Championship, which begins Thursday at the Evian Resort Golf Club in France, has produced its share of drama since Helen Alfredsson of Sweden captured the first tournament in 1994.
The event, a major on the L.P.G.A. Tour since 2013, has been held 30 times. In half of those occasions, the winner won by a stroke or in a sudden-death playoff, including five times since 2017.
Following are five tournaments that stand out.
2004
Early in the final round, Wendy Doolan trailed Annika Sorenstam, a Hall of Famer, by six strokes. Game, set and …
Not match.
During a five-hole stretch (holes six through 10), Doolan of Australia, notched three birdies and two eagles. The eagle came on No. 7, a par five, when she hit her second shot to within two feet and knocked in the putt.
With three holes to go, she was up by three and wound up winning by one.
“That’s a lot of birdies and eagles right there,” she said after clinching the victory. “I’m going to cherish this because I wouldn’t be surprised if it never happens again.”
“I just knew I had it in me to make a lot of birdies on this course,” she added. “This means what I’m doing is working for me.”
It was Doolan’s third victory, and last, on the L.P.G.A. Tour.
Sorenstam of Sweden, a two-time winner of the event, was inconsistent. She recorded five birdies, but also four bogeys.
“It’s disappointing when you get into position to win and don’t do it,” she said. “But today I just didn’t make anything happen.”
2006
It wasn’t as large a comeback, but it was a comeback nonetheless when Karrie Webb of Australia rallied from two shots back with seven holes to go to defeat Michelle Wie of the United States, who, at 16, was vying to become the youngest winner in tour history.
Wie bogeyed the 13th hole, opening the door to Webb who took advantage. She knocked in a birdie at 14 and won by a stroke over Wie and Laura Davies of England. “I am very thrilled actually and really proud that I hung in there,” Webb said afterward. “After I bogeyed and Michelle made a birdie for a two-shot lead, I told myself to believe in myself.”
As for Wie, she didn’t pick up her first victory until three years later at the Lorena Ochoa Invitational in Mexico. She finished her career with five victories, including the 2014 U.S. Women’s Open. Wie retired from the game in 2023.
“I’m getting very close,” she had said after losing to Webb in France. “Today was the closest I’ve ever been. It’s not as easy as it would seem.”
2007
Natalie Gulbis of the United States, also in search of her first tour victory, won the tournament with a birdie on the first hole of a playoff with Jang Jeong of South Korea. It would be her only victory.
Gulbis reached the 18th hole, a par five, in two, her approach coming to a rest about 25 feet from the pin. “I usually can’t reach that green in two,” she said.
“I thought the eagle putt was in. Fortunately, it ended up about a foot away, and I tapped it in. I wouldn’t have wanted it to be much farther than that.”
For Gulbis, the triumph couldn’t come soon enough. She joined the tour in 2001 after one season at the University of Arizona.
“Before the playoff I was very upset at myself because I felt like I had given away this tournament,” she said.
Earlier in 2007, she had taken time off because of a back injury.
“I had to change my golf swing because of my injury,” she said. “I was kind of thinking this might be a blessing in disguise.”
2018
Angela Stanford, then 40 years old and a 17-year veteran of the L.P.G.A. Tour, figured it was over. She probably wasn’t alone.
After failing to birdie the 18th hole, she trailed the leader, Amy Olson of the United States, by a shot.
But Olson made a double bogey on the same hole, paving the way for Stanford’s first major title.
“I’d gotten to the point,” she told The New York Times last year, “where if I never won a major, I was going to be content with my career and all the things that I’d been blessed with along the way.”
But on that September day, Stanford of the United States, who had trailed by five strokes entering the final round, did not give up hope.
“I thought if I can make some putts and maybe get to a point where I was within two on the back nine, then I’ll have a chance,” she said. “If you’re within a few on the back nine of a Sunday, anything can happen.”
Stanford, who retired after the 2024 season, will lead the United States squad against Europe at next year’s Solheim Cup in the Netherlands.
2022
At one point on the back nine in the final round, seven players were tied for the lead.
Ultimately, Brooke Henderson of Canada was the one to break through, knocking in an eight-foot birdie putt on the final hole for her second major victory. In 2016, Henderson won the Women’s PGA Championship.
Tied with Sophia Schubert of the United States, who had already finished, on the final hole in France, Henderson hooked her drive but was bailed out when the ball ricocheted off the trees and ended up in the rough. She hit her third shot to within eight feet before sinking the putt.
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