Catch me if you can. The relentless In-Kyung Kim sprinted so far ahead of the rest in the RICOH Women’s British Open you half expected her to reappear on the track at the World Athletics Championship.
Yesterday’s final two-ball of Kim and Georgia Hall wouldn’t have been threatening Usain Bolt for pace after they took almost four-and-a-half hours to get round but the closing 18 holes could be a procession to a coronation for this queen of Kingsbarns.
Leading by two overnight, Kim, a six-time winner on the LPGA Tour and a triple champion on the Ladies European circuit, finished day three six shots ahead of the chasing pack after an unwavering six-under 66 that was bolstered by a terrific display of putting.
Her 17-under aggregate is the lowest 54-hole tally in the tournament’s history while she is on course to beat the record low total of 19-under set by Karen Stupples at Sunningdale back in 2004.
There’s still plenty of golf to be played, of course, but having not dropped a shot since the first hole of her second round, Kim has seized the championship in a gasping double nelson.
The 29-year-old will be determined to grasp this latest opportunity of winning a maiden major crown. Back in 2012, Kim had a putt of just a foot on the final hole to win the Kraft Nabisco Championship but missed it and eventually lost in a play-off. The wounds would linger for a while. “I’ve finally been able to let go of that,” she reflected. “I criticised myself a lot after that but it’s not very healthy to do that and it took a bit of the joy out of golf. I learned to be nice to myself.”
Hall, the 21-year-old, had tried admirably to cling to Kim’s coat tails during an intriguing battle. With Kim making birdies on four of her first seven holes to signal her intent, Hall drove the green on the fifth and holed the eagle putt to remind her rival that she was up for the fight.
Kim was undaunted, though. On the inward half she serenely manoeuvred herself six strokes clear only for the tenacious Hall to shave that lead in half with successive birdies at the 13th, 14th and 15th. It would unravel on the run-in, though. On the 16th, the former British Ladies Amateur champion compounded a wayward drive by plonking her second shot into the bunker and leaked a shot before a crippling four-putt double-bogey on the 17th saw her slither backwards even further. Her 70 for an 11-under 205 left her sitting alongside Moriya Jutanugarn, the sister of the reigning champion, Ariya, who missed the cut on Friday.
“It was just a silly mistake on 17,” said Hall of that putting palaver. “Apart from that I was happy enough but I have to give credit to IK. She kept holing putt after putt, and I thought ‘when is this going to stop?’ She just carried on, though.”
The earlier starters were greeted by a guest appearance from a fiery orb in the sky which made for a fairly pleasant outing on the links before the inevitable, heavy showers barged their way into the scene later on.
Inbee Park, the champion at Turnberry in 2015, and Stacy Lewis, who won the crown at St Andrews in 2013, revelled in each other’s company and zipped round in 64 and 65 respectively to come hurtling up the order.
Park, the seven-time Major champion who now sits in fourth on 10-under, finally found her form and range with the putter and reeled off eight birdies in a tidy card which equalled the women’s course record set by Michelle Wie during Thursday’s opening round. “The greens were much quicker than the last two days which helped me,” said Park, whose eagle putt from 30-feet on the last for a 63 just rolled over the edge of the hole. “My expectations were pretty low going into the round. I had just made the cut and I wasn’t putting well at all but once I saw some good putts starting to roll, I got some confidence.”
Her playing partner Lewis, meanwhile, saw her charge halted with a brace of bogeys at 13 and 14 but she finished with flourish and birdied her last four holes to finish a stroke behind Park on a nine-under tally.
Park, Lewis and the rest will have to go some to reel in the dominant Kim.
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