LPGA Tour rookie Sophia Schubert has breakthrough runner-up finish at major in France

Sophia Schubert caught a glimpse of a leaderboard at No. 14 of the Amundi Evian Championship in France on Sunday. The LPGA Tour rookie was tied for the lead.

Schubert, playing in her second major, started the final round four shots behind leader Brooke Henderson.

Schubert, who calls Oak Ridge home and was a standout at Christian Academy of Knoxville,  stopped checking the leaderboard and didn't know she was still tied with Henderson going into the last hole.

"I didn't want to think about it too much, I didn't want it to distract me," Schubert told Knox News on Tuesday. "Going into that last hole ... I just tried really hard to maintain my focus, which was difficult because I knew the camera was on me. I knew there was a few thousand people watching me out in the crowd. So my caddy really helped me on that hole specifically, she just talked to me, helped me stay calm. We laughed, we smiled and just tried to embrace that moment."

Schubert closed her round with three pars, but her 3-under-par 68 wouldn't stand with Henderson hitting a 12-foot birdie for a one-shot  win.

Schubert strung together four rounds below par to finish at 16-under 268, 16 shots better than her previous career-best. She made  22 birdies, but also had two bogeys and a pair of double bogeys.

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For Schubert, the second-place finish was a "great feeling." So was the runner-up payday of $586,262, which was seven times as much she had previously made all season ($82,796).

"I've really been able to put a lot of hard work in and focus, and I just feel like that has finally paid off halfway through the season," Schubert said. "I feel like my game has been really going in the right direction. So just to be able to get this top 10, almost win, definitely helps my confidence ... I mean, they say in golf that it just takes one tournament, and I felt like this was hopefully my one tournament to really boost my confidence."

Schubert entered  the tournament ranked No. 99 in the Race to CME rankings – golfers have to stay in the top 100 to keep their cards for the 2023 season. Schubert, who won U.S. Women's Amateur in 2017, had earned her card  with her performance on the Epson Tour.

In the first 11 appearances, she missed five cuts. But Schubert's second-place finish launched her to No. 38 in the CME rankings and she jumped 230 spots in the Rolex Rankings to No. 53.

"It feels like a big weight lifted off (of me)," Schubert said. "I can now just kind of go out and play free and not have to worry about that aspect of it."

The final major of the LPGA Tour is the AIG Women's Open in Muirfield, Scotland, beginning Aug. 4. Schubert's finish didn't automatically qualify her for AIG, but she's hoping to be awarded a spot from her boost in the Rolex Rankings. If she isn't given one of the remaining spots, she plans to go to Scotland to compete in Final Qualifying at North Berwick on Monday, where 12 spots will be available for the final major of the year.

Cora Hall: Covering UT women's athletics
Twitter | cora.hall@knoxnews.com
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This article originally appeared on Knoxville News Sentinel: LPGA Tour rookie Sophia Schubert finishes second at major in France