Three shots ahead of Inbee Park at Sunday’s start, Ko had no answer for Park’s bold charge at the Ricoh Women’s British Open.
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The 27-year-old Park becomes the seventh female player to capture four different majors with the win on the Ailsa Course at Trump Turnberry Resort in Ayrshire, Scotland. At 10-over for the round and 14-over for the tournament, last year’s US Open champion retired with an ankle injury.
The LPGA Tour is calling Park’s achievement a career Grand Slam, although she hasn’t won the Evian Championship since it was given the status of a fifth major in 2013.
Park, meanwhile, was on the prowl and four birdies in a row from the seventh had her lurking ominously. It’s just unbelievable and it hasn’t really sunk in.
“I had thought it would be [only] to play through to the Olympics [in Rio next year] but now I have lots of new goals”.
Jin Young closed with a 71 for 279 and took second while another Korean, So Yeon Ryu, shot a 68 to share third with Lydia Ko on 280.
Fellow South Korean Jin-Young Ko, the co-leader heading into the fourth round, finished second at 9-under after a 71. But she made her first error when she three-putted for bogey at the 13th – and that slip-up coincided with Park’s eagle at the 14th. She would finish five shots back of Park in solo seventh. The 20-year-old’s approach to the 16th found a water hazard and led to a double-bogey 6.
Ko, who opened with a 66, was mightily impressed by Pettersen’s effort. Ko was playing in her first ever major tournament, and finishing second is a great result for the 20 year old.
The first round of one of the high-profile events in women’s golf wound up being a mere sideshow from the moment the Republican arrived at the course with family members in his private helicopter, declaring “the world has asked me to be here”.
“I felt I was in my hundred per cent control of the ball, the flight, the spin; everything you need to do in conditions like this”.
“I was eating my sandwich – my bread was getting wet in the rain”, said the 18-year-old New Zealander, who wore four layers of clothes, hand warmers and ear muffs at times during her round. “Just one bogey in that is seriously impressive”. This week I was lucky. “I walked out to the tenth that day and played in some bad weather just to get used to it. I’m trying to mess it up best I can, but he’s pretty good at getting me on track”. Brooke Henderson of Smiths Falls, Ont. shot a 1-over 73. She rolled a birdie putt just wide on the 18th hole that would have given her the outright lead.
The Norwegian’s three-under 69 was the only sub-70 score on a day which was so reminiscent of the awful second rounds at last week’s Senior Open at Sunningdale and the previous week’s Open at St Andrews.
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A shot further back on level par, England’s Hannah Burke tied for 17th place while earlier on the final day, Danish Ladies European Tour rookie Nanna Koertz Madsen equalled the course record of 65 and tied for 21st on one over par.
