Shin’s closing birdie gave her a 14-under 274 and her seventh LPGA Tour win, moving her into position to regain the No. 1 ranking for women’s golf.
It also denied Morgan Pressel’s bid to snap a 21-month LPGA losing streak and Alexis Thompson’s chance to make history as the youngest winner in tour history.
“This is my favorite place,” gushed Shin, who earned $487,500 and became the first Evian winner from South Korea.
Playing alongside Shin, and with a shorter distance to the hole, Pressel just missed a birdie putt at the 18th to close with a 70 and end one shot back at 13-under 275.
Thompson (67) and Korean Na Yeon Choi (66) also ended at 13-under, posting their scores several groups ahead of the final pairing of Shin and Pressel.
Thompson, the 15-year-old rising star, finished birdie-birdie on her last two holes and was trying to become the youngest winner in LPGA Tour history by nearly three years.
Shin started the final day at Evian Masters Golf Club two shots behind 54-hole leader Pressel and collected five birdies without making a bogey.
She didn’t tie Pressel until a birdie at the 13th hole — her fourth birdie of the round — and both players set out to beat the clubhouse lead established first by Choi and then matched by Thompson.
Shin did it. Pressel didn’t.
Following four consecutive pars, Shin holed a six-foot putt for her birdie at the 18th to finish at 14-under par.
Pressel was closer to the hole, but she just missed on the opportunity, giving Shin the victory.
While she was waiting for Pressel’s putt, Shin and her caddie talked about focusing on a playoff. She didn’t see Pressel’s putt miss.
“I tried to make no mistakes,” said Shin. “And then the last few holes it feels like, ‘Oh, I’m so close to the win.’ So I was really nervous and got really pressured.
“But I tried thinking, just focus, just focus and just trust myself.”
Pressel’s round included a hole-out eagle at No. 5 and a birdie at No. 9. But she didn’t pick up any more strokes after that. She made a bogey at the 10th that trimmed her lead to one shot, and Shin caught her three holes later.
Pressel is still winless on the LPGA since the 2008 Kapalua Classic. Her other tour victory came at the 2007 Kraft Nabisco Championship, where she was the youngest major winner in history. She picked up an international win in Japan earlier this year.
Shin is one of three players who have held the No. 1 ranking in women’s golf since Lorena Ochoa’s retirement. She took over the top spot on the day Ochoa played her farewell round and still had it when she withdrew the Wednesday of the State Farm Classic to have an emergency appendectomy.
Since then, Ai Miyazato and Cristie Kerr have exchanged the No. 1 ranking with Shin dropping back to No. 4 at the beginning of the week, behind Norway’s Suzann Pettersen.
But now, it appears she will have the No. 1 ranking back.
Pettersen shot a 66 and took fifth place by herself at 12-under 276. Song-Hee Kim (68) and Mika Miyazato (69) tied for sixth at 10-under 278.
NOTES: Thompson is 15 years, five months and 15 days old. The youngest winner in LPGA history was Marlene Hagge at 18 years and 14 days. Hagge won the 1952 Sarasota Open, an 18-hole event…Ai Miyazato, who entered the tournament as the world No. 1, tied for 19th place and Kerr, who was No. 2, shared 31st with a large group that included Michelle Wie…The LPGA remains in Europe next week for the fourth and final major of the season, the Women’s British Open, which was won by Catriona Matthew last year.
