Weather fails to stop South Korean's victory march

Monday 17 September 2012

Battered and bruised by atrocious weather, everyone deserved a medal at the conclusion of a 36-hole final day marathon at Hoylake yesterday, but it was Jiyai Shin who earned the greatest reward of a second Ricoh Women's British Open title.

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Elspeth Burnside

The 24-year-old South Korean won as a raw rookie in the sunshine at Sunningdale four years ago. This time she battled against driving winds and torrential rain to win by a handsome nine-shot margin. With the players forced to play 36 holes after Friday's play was wiped out by severe winds, Shin shot rounds of 71 and 73 for a nine-under par total.

Inbee Park, another South Korean, birdied the long 18th for a closing 76 and second place on level par with Paula Creamer of the United States taking third place after she finished with a 72. It's been a remarkable and profitable, and also very long, week for Shin. She defeated Creamer and earned £130,000 in a nine-hole play-off for the Kingsmill Championship last Monday before flying to England to face another extended event. Yesterday she added £266,000.Sunday was a real 36-hole slog. With hardly a break for lunch, players were on the course for more than 10 hours. Catriona Matthew was one of seven British players to make the cut and the Scot, who won the title at Royal Lytham and St Annes three years ago, took the top home honours.The 43-year-old had to draw on a wealth of experience and an ability to cope with adversity to shoot rounds of 71 and 75 for a share of 10th place."I've played in heavy rain and bad winds, but never when both were so bad at the same time," said Matthew. "At the start of the back nine in the final round it was awful, just crazy. But it was great. I just made the cut so to make the top 10 was really good."Her only real blight was a double-bogey seven at the start of her final round. But she finished with 13 straight pars, most of them made in the worst of the weather.Graeme, her husband and caddie, admitted he was soaked through by the end, but was delighted with his wife's gritty effort. "It was just brutal out there and I even broke my glasses," he said. "I took them off to dry them but twisted them in the towel and they snapped."Shin was five ahead at halfway after a second round course record 64 and was three ahead going into the final round. By the time she birdied the sixth and seventh she had moved seven in front and, from then on, the weather presented her only challenge."That was a long, long day and very tough," said the new champion. "I have never played in such bad weather, but I managed to stay focused and now I'm just so excited."Shin's victory completed an Asian clean sweep of this year's four women's majors. Sun Young Yoo (Kraft Nabisco Championship) and Na Yeon Choi (US Women's Open) also joined the list from South Korea, while China's Shanshan Feng triumphed at the LPGA Championship.Lydia Ko, the 15-year-old New Zealander who became the youngest winner on the LPGA Tour at last month's Canadian Open, took the amateur prize, the Smyth Salver.The teenager shot 72 and 78 to finish in the top 20 on nine over par, two ahead of English amateur Holly Clyburn.

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Weather fails to stop South Korean's victory march

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