Double rainbow
Sunday 16th September -
Above: Champion Jiyai Shin Below: Karrie Webb
ROUNDS 3 & 4 36 HOLES OF GOLF IN ONE DAY in tough weather conditions on an exacting golf course were always going to provide a difficult challenge for the remaining competitors, both mentally and physically, and sure to root out any weaknesses in a player’s game. The main question for me was whether this championship was going to be won or lost. With so much at stake in major championships we have seen a disturbing trend for players to ‘blow up’ on a final day after playing great golf on the previous days of the competition. This is not just competition outsiders but players at the peak of their powers. It was also difficult to remind ourselves that this Sunday morning was really like a Saturday ‘Moving Day’ due to the cancellation of play on Friday, so the challenge for the leader Jiyai Shin was to maintain her 5 shot lead for the full day. So on the Sunday we saw challenges
come and go. We saw the lead cut right back at one point to where it looked like it could be a real two or three way battle. We even saw a triple bogey start on the final 18 for Shin. However, what we saw more than anything else was a true champion emerge to win the 2012 Ricoh Women’s British Open. Part of me wanted to see a thrilling end,
00 ROYAL LIVERPOOL GOLF CLUB MAGAZINE 2013
going down to the wire with the main protagonists separated by a winning putt on the last hole. But I was also thrilled to see another piece of Hoylake history written in majestic style by Jiyai Shin. Let’s not forget that, although the scoring made it look like a procession to glory, some of the final 9 holes were played in the most appalling conditions, with play being temporarily suspended due to heavy rain. As some of her challengers fell away under the pressure and carded high final day scores, Shin stayed focused, composed and confident with a steely determination to see it through to the end. There were a couple of subplots playing
out on the final day, too. One of them was the fear that the players could not complete the tournament within the available daylight hours. As it happened we had the combination of weather halting play, fewer daylight hours and gloomy, cloudy skies threatening a Monday finish. Before we blame September for the weather we received, it’s fair to point out that the weather in July was not much better! With a few holes to go it was becoming clear who the winner would be, so it was hard to see anyone wanting to return on Monday morning for an anticlimactic finish; that said, with significant prize money on offer there were still many placings to be decided. The other main title up for grabs was the
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