South Korea’s Shin Ji-yai overcame atrocious weather and survived a marathon 36-hole final day to claim a second Women’s British Open at Royal Liverpool Golf Club by nine shots on Sunday.
With rounds of 71 and 73, the 2008 champion finished on nine-under, winning the final major of the season by an outstanding margin from South Korea’s Park In-bee.
It was the biggest winning margin since the championship became a major in 2001.
Photo: AFP
Park, the 2008 US Women’s Open Champion, birdied the last for a closing 76 and second place, with Paula Creamer of the US — who closed birdie, eagle, par, birdie — taking third on one-over after a 72.
World No. 1 Yani Tseng of Taiwan carded 76 and 79 in her final two rounds to finish tied for 26th on 11-over 299, while Candie Kung was a further two shots back after shooting 75 and 77. Amy Hung finished on 15-over after a 79 and a 78.
Finishing in near darkness, the victory completed a remarkably impressive week for 24-year-old Shin, who has now won 10 times on the LPGA Tour. The previous Monday she had needed nine extra holes to beat Creamer in a playoff for the LPGA Tour’s Kingsmill Championship.
“That was a long, long day and very tough,” the new champion said. “I have never played in such bad weather, but I managed to stay focused and now I’m just so excited. Winning at Sunningdale four years ago was my first big win and changed my life. Now I have even more great British Open memories.”
Friday’s play had been wiped out due to severe winds and the weather again caused havoc on a day of catchup. There was even an eight-minute break in the second round when the gusting wind and torrential rain made it impossible to hit shots.
Shin, who shot a course record 64 in Saturday’s second round, added a 71 in the third round and her lead was reduced to three by Karrie Webb, the three-time former champion charging into contention with a 68, but as conditions deteriorated, so did the golf and Webb’s hopes of an eighth major title began to slip out of her grasp with a double-bogey, bogey, bogey start.
Shin also hit trouble at the start of the final round with a three-putt, triple-bogey seven, but the 24-year-old bounced back with a 25-foot birdie at the short sixth and another from 18 feet at the seventh.
Seven ahead at that stage, she was never troubled by anything other than the weather.
While Webb stumbled to an 82 and fell back into a share of fifth on three-over, Creamer finished birdie, eagle, par, birdie for a 72.
Lydia Ko, the 15-year-old New Zealander who became the youngest winner on the LPGA Tour at last month’s Canadian Open, took the amateur prize, the Smyth Salver.
The teen shot 72 and 78 to finish in the top 20 on nine-over, two ahead of English amateur Holly Clyburn.
Shin’s victory completed an Asian clean sweep of this year’s four women majors.
South Koreans Yoo Sun-young and Choi Na-yeon won the Kraft Nabisco Championship and the US Women’s Open respectively, while Feng Shanshan became the first Chinese player to win one of the big four at the LPGA Championship.
Additional reporting by staff writer
Revelations of positive doping tests for nearly two dozen Chinese swimmers that went unpunished sparked an intense flurry of accusations and legal threats between the World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA) and the head of the US drug-fighting organization, who has long been one of WADA’s fiercest critics. WADA on Saturday said it was turning to legal counsel to address a statement released by US Anti-Doping Agency (USADA) CEO Travis Tygart, who said WADA and anti-doping authorities in China swept positive tests “under the carpet by failing to fairly and evenly follow the global rules that apply to everyone else in the world.” The
Taiwanese judoka Yang Yung-wei on Saturday won silver in the men’s under-60kg category at the Asian Judo Championships in Hong Kong. Nicknamed the “judo heartthrob” in Taiwan, the Olympic silver-medalist missed out on his first Asian Championships gold when he lost to Japanese judoka Taiki Nakamura in the finals. Yang defeated three opponents on Saturday to reach the final after receiving a bye through the round of 32. He first topped Laotian Soukphaxay Sithisane in the round of 16 with two seoi nage (over-the-shoulder throws), then ousted Indian Vijay Kumar Yadav in the quarter-finals with his signature ude hishigi sankaku gatame (triangular armlock). He
Rafael Nadal on Wednesday said the upcoming French Open would be the moment to “give everything and die” on the court after his comeback from injury in Barcelona was curtailed by Alex de Minaur. The 22-time Grand Slam title winner, back playing this week after three months on the sidelines, battled well, but eventually crumbled 7-5, 6-1 against the world No. 11 from Australia in the second round. Nadal, 37, who missed virtually all of last season, is hoping to compete at the French Open next month where he is the record 14-time champion. The Spaniard said the clash with De Minaur was
RALLY: It was only the second time the Taiwanese has partnered with Kudermetova, and the match seemed tight until they won seven points in a row to take the last set 10-2 Taiwan’s Chan Hao-ching and Russia’s Veronika Kudermetova on Sunday won the Porsche Tennis Grand Prix women’s doubles final in Stuttgart, Germany. The pair defeated Norway’s Ulrikke Eikeri and Estonia’s Ingrid Neel 4-6, 6-3, 10-2 in a tightly contested match at the WTA 500 tournament. Chan and Kudermetova fell 4-6 in the first set after having their serve broken three times, although they played increasingly well. They fought back in the second set and managed to break their opponents’ serve in the eighth game to triumph 6-3. In the tiebreaker, Chan and Kudermetova took a 3-0 lead before their opponents clawed back two points, but