Yani Tseng (曾雅妮) won the Women’s Australian Open by three strokes yesterday, shooting five birdies on the back nine for a seven-under 66 to pull away from former champions Karrie Webb and Laura Davies.
Tseng, the 2008 LPGA Championship winner, had a 72-hole total of nine-under 283 on the par-73 Commonwealth Golf Club. Hitting 17 greens in regulation yesterday, she birdied the final two holes to all but end any challenge from Webb and Davies in the final group behind her.
Defending champion Davies shot 71, including a birdie on 18, to finish second.
PHOTO: AFP
Four-time Open winner and third-round leader Webb missed three putts for birdies inside four feet on the back nine and was third after a 74 and was four behind Tseng.
Australian Katherine Hull, who shot 72, finished tied for fourth with second-round leader Giulia Sergas of Italy (74), five off Tseng.
Webb wore a white shirt with blue-and-green trim — the same as last Sunday when she shot a course-record 11-under 61 at Royal Pines to win her seventh Australian Masters title.
While the shirt was the same, however, the outcome was very different as Webb, playing for the fourth week in a row after previous stops in Bangkok and Singapore, faltered in the closing stages.
Instead, Tseng was rewarded for steady iron play on the back nine — capitalizing on birdies on eight and nine to come home with a bogey-free finish.
“It was very exciting, my whole body is still shaking,” Tseng said before the trophy presentations. “My heart is still at over 200 beats a minute.”
“I just felt I needed to get some more birdies coming home and it worked out,” said Tseng, who said she plans to return to Taiwan and will share the Australian Open trophy with family and friends.
Webb started the day with a one-shot lead over Sergas and began with two birdies.
“I got off to a really great start and was feeling really good,” Webb said. “I played a couple of scrappy holes on six and seven and really lost a lot of momentum.”
“I just didn’t hit it as good after that for some reason. I didn’t trust myself as much as I would have liked and then the putts just weren’t going in. Seven under is an incredible score around here today,” she said.
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