WOMEN'S BRITISH OPEN:SOUTH KOREA'S Jiyai Shin was in a league or her own yesterday as she claimed her second Ricoh Women's British Open title in five years on a landmark day for golf.
For the first time in history Asian players have won all four of the women’s Majors in one season – and that makes it a remarkable seven in a row for them.
Shin’s massive nine-stroke victory after a marathon 36-hole final day at wet and windy Hoylake means she joins compatriots Sun-young Yoo and Na-yeon Choi and China’s Shanshan Feng as this season’s champions.
Their dominance is in stark contrast to the men’s game where in 423 Majors played since the first British Open in 1860 Korean YE Yang, who won the USPGA three years ago, has been the only Asian winner.
Shin went into the day five clear after a stunning second round 64 – the lowest score of the week by four – and won the €329,044 first prize with battling rounds of 71 and 73.
They gave the 24-year-old a nine-under-par total of 279 for what was her second victory in seven days. Last Monday she beat American Paula Creamer after a nine-hole play-off in Virginia.
And this after two months off this summer following surgery to remove a broken bone in the palm of her left hand.
Compatriot Inbee Park was runner-up and Creamer third after playing the last four holes in four under with an eagle and two birdies.
It was not quite as easy as it sounds, however. During the morning Shin had her advantage trimmed to one shot after 10 holes, but birdied the next three.
The Atlanta-based golfer then started her final round with a triple-bogey seven as the weather worsened, but remained in control as Webb dropped two shots herself there and followed with two bogeys.
Birdie putts of 22 and 18 feet at the sixth and seventh widened the gap to seven.
World number one Yani Tseng’s bid for an unprecedented third successive win in the event was over long before she ran up a quintuple bogey nine at the 14th.
The Taiwanese 23-year-old closed with a 79 for joint 26th place on 11 over. Fifteen-year-old Lydia Ko – Korean-born, but now representing New Zealand – was leading amateur at nine over, two better than England’s Holly Clyburn.
NEW FACES: Young guns making their mark
SHORTLY AFTER 15-year-old amateur Lydia Ko became the youngest winner in LPGA Tour history last month, Commissioner Mike Whan was asked to put the significance of her victory into context. "There was a 15-year-old that won?" Whan asked in jest.
Ko's remarkable achievement is minimised by the fact that five of the LPGA's seven youngest champions have been crowned since 2005.
Only last year, the previous youngest winner, US teenage sensation Lexi Thompson, triumphed at the Navistar Championship at 16 years 7 months 8 days.
"I feel I'm old on the tour now," said Yani Tseng, the LPGA's top-ranked player. "I'm only 23, but there's so many younger players now."
The average age of winners on the LPGA Tour this year is 24. Whan is relishing the potential for one or more of the young players to step forward and make the circuit instantly more relevant to casual golf fans.
"I'm lucky as commissioner to sit through what is going to be a phenomenal time in womens golf," he said. Whan, 47, became the LPGA's eighth commissioner in October 2009, after Carolyn Bivens resigned under pressure from the game's top players.
He has been a stabilising force, succeeding in regaining the trust of players, tournament organisers and sponsors. He has persuaded them to unite for the greater good and reset expectations.
A rising tide may not exactly be lifting the LPGA to new heights, but the organisation is no longer sinking, either. A schedule that had 34 tournaments in 2008 dwindled to 24 in 2010, the fewest since 1972. Nearly half of those events were outside the US, a reflection of the LPGA's growing international presence.
This year, 27 events are on the calendar, and Whan would like to increase that to more than 30. The LPGA is among the few elite sports bodies that can stake a claim to a truly global presence.
They are utilizing the tours international flavour as an asset, said Rob Neal, executive director of the Tournament Golf Foundation, which manages and organises tournaments, including the LPGA's Safeway Classic in Portland, Oregon. Theyre not running from it anymore. They are embracing it.
