FROM an inauspicious start to a triumphant conclusion. Mi-Hyang Lee arrived at Dundonald Links for the Aberdeen Asset Management Ladies Scottish Open without the tools of her trade.

By Sunday night, she was £171,000 richer and had a silver trophy to shove in her luggage after penning the kind of tale of the unexpected that used to be the reserve of Roald Dahl.

Nine shots off the lead after 36-holes and six behind heading into the final 18, the 24-year-old from Korea, who was eventually re-united with her clubs in time for Thursday’s opening round, produced a significant surge to hoist herself to the front and take advantage of Karrie Webb’s costly late wobble.

A rousing six-under 66, for a six-under 282, was certainly deserving of the prize and the plaudits. Lee was slightly shocked that she was receiving them, mind you.

“I can’t believe I got a win today as I thought Karrie was going to do it,” she said with a sense of pleasant bewilderment after securing a slender, one stroke win over Webb and her Korean compatriot, Mi Jung Hur

It was Webb’s for the taking but in the end, a 42nd LPGA Tour title for this prolific 42-year-old Aussie would slip through her clutches.

With Lee and Hur, who also closed with a 66, making menacing advances, it looked like Webb had struck a telling blow when she dunted in a delightfully executed bump-and-run from some 50-feet on the 14th for an eagle which thrust her into a two stroke advantage over the field. The pump of the clenched fist illustrated the importance of the moment.

Ahead of her, meanwhile, Lee was conjuring an equally important moment of her own which would prove decisive in the final analysis.

Having ended up back left of the 17th green, Lee made a magnificent up-and-down from a potentially ruinous position to salvage her par and keep her late push on track.

“My caddie wanted me to hit a 6-iron into the 17th but I went with a 5-iron and it was a bit too much,” said Lee of the approach which almost derailed her title tilt. “I was wrong and he was right.”

A birdie on the final hole – she did have a raking putt for an eagle – gave her the clubhouse lead as all the attention switched to Webb.

Having missed a par-putt on the 16th, things began to unravel on the 17th as her seemingly harmless drive kicked into the bunker and left her with no option but to come out backwards.

“I had hit the exact tee shot I wanted to get it down around those bunkers and I’m not quite sure what happened to it and how it ended up where it did,” reflected Webb of that nasty excursion into the sand.

A double-bogey six left her two behind. From a position of authority, Webb, a seven-time major winner, was now playing catch-up.

She needed to eagle the last to force a play-off. An approach into the greenside bunker effectively killed off those ambitions even though Webb wasn’t quite sure of the situation she was in.

“There was no leaderboard on the 18th,” she said with clear disgruntlement after splashing out of the sand and holing the birdie putt in a one-over 73.

“When I made my birdie putt, there wasn’t a huge cheer, so I assumed it wasn’t to tie. It’s pretty bad not to have a leaderboard on the last.

“I said to Johnny my caddie, ‘I don’t know if I need to hole this or get it up-and-down’.

“Imagine if you went for it and overplayed it and you only had to get it up-and-down? I was trying to make it but I was also trying not to be overly aggressive.”

Over at the recording hut, meanwhile, the news filtered through that Lee had won and the band of golf writers quickly encircled her in a pen-scribbling pincer movement. “I’m more nervous talking to you than I was standing over that putt on the 18th,” chuckled Lee. That’s the effect we tend to have on folk.

This was her second LPGA Tour win and a first since her breakthrough in 2014.

With the RICOH Women’s British Open at Kingsbarns up next, Lee is now setting her sights on a double whammy in the cradle of the game.

“This was really good practice for the British this week,” said Lee, after a boisterous week on the west coast which featured some of the more wretched deliveries from the grim armoury of the lamentable Scottish summer.

“I take a lot of confidence from this win, so hopefully I can win next week, too.”

On the home front, there wasn’t much cause to hang out the bunting.

Only two players, from an initial entry of nine, made the halfway cut with Carly Booth, a two-time winner on the Ladies European Tour emerging as the best of a small bunch in a tie for 31st on a 293 after a 73. It wasn’t quite a grandstand finish

“When you finish badly, it’s always a bummer,” said Booth who struggled on the greens all week.

“I’ve always struggled on these greens every year. Line, pace. I just find them very hard to read.”

Catriona Matthew was five shots further back on 298 after a 74.