American Stacy Lewis closed with birdies on the 71st and 72nd holes shooting an even-par 72 on Sunday’s final round to win the RICOH Women’s British Open by two shots over South Koreans Na Yeon Choi and Hee Young Park.
Lewis kept looking comfortable at St. Andrews as she was steady on a day where the tough conditions had players going backwards. In 2008, the American won all five matches over the Home of Golf's famous links in leading her country to victory over Great Britain and Ireland in the Curtis Cup.
With her win she alson ended the American win drought in Major Championships. She was the last American to win a Major Championship when she won the 2011 Kraft Nabisco Championship. Since then all 10 Majors held had been won by Asian players, including the last three by Inbee Park, who was looking for an unprecedented fourth professional Major Championship win in the same year.
On Sunday, the players had to play 36 holes due to the suspension of the third round on Saturday due to the high winds conditions that didn’t allow the balls to settle on the greens.
American Morgan Pressel had birdied the 18th hole early on Sunday to grab the lead after 54 holes at nine-under. Lewis was second one shot behind at eight-under, while Suzann Pettersen, Na Yeon Choi, Hee Young Park and Miki Saiki were T-3rd at seven-under.
Due to the tournament wanting to get the players back on the course as soon as possible to finish the tournament, players were not re-paired for the final round. Instead they teed off in the same order they played starting the third round, meaning that Lewis was playing six groups before the last pairing of Choi and Saiki, and Pressel was paired with Pettersen on the second-to-last group.
Lewis wasn’t off to a good start for her final round; she made bogeys on the second and fourth holes to drop to six-under. She would make up for it though with back-to-back birdies on the sixth and seventh holes, pulling back to eight-under at the score she made the turn.
Pressel had fallen off the lead with bogeys on the second and eight holes, but gained one back with a birdie on nine to make the turn at eight-under. Choi and Park also made the turn at eight-under while Pettersen turned at seven-under setting up the back nine for an epic finish.
Choi took the outright lead after she birdied the 10th hole to go to nine-under. Then everybody started to falter in front of her. Lewis made bogeys on 11 and 12 falling to six-under; Park bogeyed 12 through 14 to drop to five-under; Pettersen bogeys 11 and 13 to go down to five-under and Pressel double-bogey 12 to drop to six-under.
All of a sudden, Choi had a three shot lead with six holes to play and it looked like her tournament to lose. Little did anybody know that she would do just that. She opened the door after bogeys on 13 and 14 dropping to seven-under, and all of sudden bringing Lewis, Park, Pettersen and Pressel back on the picture.
Lewis would take advantage of this slip as she turned her game into high gear, especially on the last two holes. On the toughest hole on the course, the ‘Road Hole’ No. 17, she made a splendid approach shot that landed on the bank below and rolled off within two feet from the hole. She would make the birdie-putt—just the fourth at the hole on Sunday—to tie Choi for the lead at seven-under.
But she wouldn’t settle for tie, she went for the outright lead. After a marvelous tee shot that stopped in the banks below the hole, Lewis decided to putt with her second shot from there. It proved to be the right choice even after she powered the putt past the hole about 15 feet, she would have a downhill putt for birdie to close.
And she measured the distance and guessed the correct speed as she sank the birdie-putt. She grabbed the outright lead as she entered the clubhouse and put all the pressure on Choi, who was to tee off on 16 and had been four-over in her last 26 holes including eight bogeys.
Park was playing alongside Lewis and she had birdied 16th and gave herself a chance being at six-under. She was in need of a birdie to tie Lewis and Choi at seven-under on 18th. But her chances disappeared when Lewis made her birdie just before her attempt, relegating the meaning of that putt to mere positioning. She made par though and finished at six-under tied with Choi.
Pressel would not be able to take advantage the rest of the way. She missed a birdie chance on the 16th and drowned her chances on the 17th hole. Her second shot went past the green and stopped at the cart path on top. From there she needed to hole the third shot to have a chance with the birdie-hole 18th coming up, but her chip went over the hole and she settled for a bogey.
She would finish T-4th with Pettersen at five-under. Pettersen also missed some chances down the stretch with bogeys on 15 and especially on 17 where she blew her approach shot past the hole stopping a couple of feet from the wall. She would finish with a birdie on 18th though to finish tied with Pressel.
Choi needed a birdie on one of the last three holes. But she couldn’t put herself in position to get one on any of those holes. Her approach shots were way off the mark, and her putting that had taken her to the lead, betrayed her at the end. She went into 18th needing to make an eagle to tie Lewis and force a playoff, but her second shot missed by 10 feet to the right of the hole, finishing at six-under tied for second with Park.
American Lizette Salas finished in solo sixth at three-under behind Pettersen and Pressel who were T-4th. Rounding up the Top 10 were Japan’s Mamiko Higa and Miki Saiki finishing T-7th at two-under, and Americans Natalie Gulbis and Nicole Castrale who finished T-9th at one-under.
Gulbis was one of the few players to play the fourth round under-par, she shot a two-under 70 and had the day’s second lowest round behind fellow American Cristie Kerr who shot three-under 69 and finished in solo 16th at one-over.
One of the pre-tournament favorites, Scotland’s Catriona Matthew, was the only player to make an eagle on 18th during the tournament; she did it to close her third round early on Sunday. Matthew finished T-11th at even-par with Paula Creamer, Anna Nordqvist, Pernilla Lindberg and Meena Lee.
Inbee Park’s round kept getting worse as she kept playing. She finished with rounds of 74-78 to finish T-42nd at six-over. Her best weapon, putting, was the key to her demise. She had 37 putts on Friday and followed that up with 36 and 40 putts on the last two rounds.
Even though she started to a six-under on Thursday and looked like she was well on her way to her fourth Major of the year, looks like pressure finally got to the unflappable World’s No. 1.
New Zealand's 16-year-old Lydia Ko and England's 17-year-old Georgia Hall shared the Smyth Salver for the leading amateur. Ko, who was joint 17th at the British Open at Hoylake and top amateur last year, closed with a 74 and Hall, the British amateur Champion, had a 77.
Other notables finsihes: So Yeon Ryu (T-17th, two-over); defending champ Jiyay Shin (T-44th, five-over); Shanshan Feng (T-25th, four-over); I.K. Kim (T-47th, seven-over).
Missing the cut-line of the Top 65 and ties which was set at one-over, were: Yani Tseng (two-over), Ai Miyazato (four-over), Karrie Webb (six-over), Lexi Thompson (eight-over) and Beatriz Recari (10-over) missed the cut.