When destiny and angels collide, the outcome rests in the hands of the big D. The winged ones put a guiding, comforting hand on your shoulder, but it’s fate that wins the day in golf. A Lim Kim was fated to win the 75th playing of the USGA Women’s Open, while Amy Olson gave a heroic effort on day five, all the while bearing the burden of a lost, loved one. There wasn’t much about the postponed national championship that resembled the expected and the anticipated As the mud settled, it was a dramatic conclusion to the year’s final major championship.

Hinako Shibuno entered Monday’s delayed final round in first place, where she had been for the better part of three days. Shibuno needed an early birdie to plant a flag and stake a claim, but her first sub-par score would not come until the 13th hole. By that point in the round, she had returned four strokes to par, was even on the week, and would ultimately finish in solo 4th position. Top four in a major is a career feat for professionals, and an undreamed-of occurrence for mortals. For Shibuno, after her surprising 2019 British Open title, the non-victory certainly had to sting a bit.

Moving up the leader board was two-time major champion and world number one Jin-young Ko. Ko spent the better part of 2020 ensconced in safe harbor, at home in Korea. She rode the viral wave in the company of family, finding practice and competition opportunities nearby. In her return to the world stage, Ko tied for 34th at Pelican, then moved up to 5th at the VOA, two weeks ago. This week, she surged in the final round with a marvelous 68, three under on the day. Ko’s progress should make her a lock to win the CME Group Tour Championship in Naples this week, but a playoff for a third major title escaped her grasp by one stroke.

Back to the angels. Amy Olson hails from North Dakota, and won the 2009 U.S. Girls championship. Eschewing the lure of large-school college golf, Olson remained in her native state at North Dakota State, where she excelled in the classroom and on the course. She turned professional after graduation, and has competed on the LPGA Tour for just over seven complete seasons. Without a victory, but with a pair of top-ten finishes in major events, Olson took the opening round lead with a stellar 67. That number would prove on Monday to be fated, as it was the low round for the week, on either of the Champions Golf Club courses. Four of them were posted, one in each round, and Olson owned one of them.

On Saturday evening, Olson’s beloved father-in-law passed from this world. Her husband was travelling from home to Houston when he received the news. Olson spent much of Sunday in tears, preparing for a round that would never begin. Perhaps fate and the angel conspired that day, to make the course just unplayable enough as the day unwound, to delay competition and give Olson time to gather.

On Monday, Olson went out in the final threesome, with Shibuno and Moriya Jutanugarn. Three bogeys at holes 2 through 4 were quickly countered by birdies at 5 and 6. Olson reeled off nine pars to the 16th, where an adrenaline-laced hybrid overshot the green, resulting in her fourth bogey of the day. A birdie at the last returned her to 2-under on the week, in a tie with Ko. Her admirable score of 72 outdistanced her playing companions, but there was one golfer that she could not overtake.

A Lim Kim was not a recognizable name, a considered name, a feared name, at any point during the week. Although the 25-year old Korean had signed for 68 on Thursday, her subsequent rounds of 74 and 72 had returned her to a place outside of apparent contention. In that interim, Shibuno had posted 67 on Friday to assume the lead position, while Ji Yeong Kim2 would return a 67 of her own on day three, to make a hasty leaderboard move, inside the top then. Kim2 would tumble away on Sunday, to an 80, and a tie for 30th place.

The fourth 67 was presented by destiny to A Lim Kim on Sunday. Birdies at 5, 6 and 8 brought her out of the cloud cover, into the center of the campaign for the Mickey Wright medal. Bogeys past the turn, at 10 and 11, returned the lead to Olson. Then, the most unexpected thing happened, Beginning at the 16th hole, the one that would prove to be Olson’s undoing, A Lim Kim birdied home. She rolled an iron three feet past the cup on the par-three hole, then dunked the putt, dead center. On 17, from the fairway’s middle, she ripped an iron and quickly looked away, knowing it had found its line. The ball rolled to a stop, 16 inches from the hole. At the 72nd hole, her wedge approach settled eight feet away. Her putt never wavered and, when it dropped, she punched the air and smiled with her eyes, behind the mask that she wore for the entirety of the competition.

In truth, she might have logged four consecutive birdies. A long birdie effort at the 15th, downhill and gaining speed, pulled up one turn shy of a three, in the heart of the cup. In the end, the USGA had a deserving champion and a spate of worthy contenders. The players and this writer second-guessed the manner in which round three was conducted, something that has become commonplace at national championships. Champions Golf Club proved to be a worthy venue for an Open championship, and should be featured more often. As A Lim Kim returns home to Korea with a treasured trophy, we look ahead to 2021, and a 76th Open championship at California’s Olympic Club.