Mo Martin played well throughout the entire week of the Ricoh Women’s British Open at Royal Birkdale, but saved the very best for last.

On the 72nd hole on Sunday she nearly jarred her second shot for an albatross on the par-5 finishing hole. She calmly tapped in her eagle putt and waited for the leaders to fail to catch her one-under-par total over the difficult links course.

Martin posted 69-69 over the first two days and held the 36-hole lead at six-under-par, but a third round five-over-par 77 moved her down to T-7.

Inbee Park held the 54-hole lead at four-under-par, but struggled to a five-over-par 77 on Sunday and finished solo fourth. 

Shanshan Feng and Suzann Pettersen started the final round tied for runner-up and ended the tournament the same way by firing a pair of three-over-par 75’s.

For Martin it is a true “Cinderella Story.” After four years at UCLA, she turned professional in 2005. She toiled on the Symetra Tour from 2006-2011 and won three titles.

Martin finally made it to the bright lights and big checks of the LPGA Tour in 2012. She earned $171,000 and finished No. 63 on the 2012 LPGA Tour money list to keep her card. In 2013 she improved to $319,000 and was No. 46 on the money list.   

She had struggled in 2014 prior to the Ricoh Women’s British Open, did not have a top-10 finish and had only earned $108,000.

Her best finish in a major championship before this win, was a T-29 earlier this year at the Kraft Nabisco Championship.

That is all history now as the $474,000 first-place check at the Women’s British Open moves her to No. 14 in the Race to the CME Globe and she will be forever known as a major championship winner.

The women found scoring around Royal Birkdale to be extremely difficult on Sunday as no one broke par and the only two players to shoot even par were Martin and Anna Norqvist, who moved up eight places to finish T-12.

Jessica Korda posted a two-over-par 74 and moved up 12 spots on the leaderboard to finish T-5 with Angela Stafford, Eun-Hee Ji and Julieta Granada.

Dame Laura Davies, the oldest lady in the field, collected another top-10 in a major tournament, finishing at four-over-par at T-9.

Charley Hull and Stacy Lewis who started the day in sight of the leaders, both struggled with six-over-par 78 to tie for 12th with Nordqvist, Azahara Munoz and Gwladys Nocera.

This was a fantastic win for the 31-year-old Martin and shows that perseverance and hard work pays off in the end.