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
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