RIO DE JANEIRO – Arms held over her head in triumph, Inbee Park showed about as much emotion as you are likely ever to see from the stoic South Korean golfer. Henderson was still in the mix when she four-putted for double bogey on the 16th hole, taking three of those putts from 3 feet.
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Ko ended at 11 under par to take silver while China’s Shanshan Feng finished a further stroke back to win bronze.
She finished 72 holes in 16-under par 268, a remarkable performance under any circumstances, but notably so for a player who some in her homeland thought should have stepped aside to allow a healthier South Korean to replace her.
All six medallists across the men’s and women’s events at Rio 2016 came from different countries as Britain’s Justin Rose, Sweden’s Henrik Stenson and Matt Kuchar of the United States claimed a place on the men’s podium.
Playing in the final threesome with Park and Ko, Piller hoped to close a two-shot deficit on Park and take the gold.
“When I had that (bad) hole and it’s not like me to get emotional, but I knew I was out of it”. Just kind of putts didn’t fall like they did yesterday.
“That was just the one place you couldn’t really go … and I went there”. “So I’m pretty confident going into the next couple of weeks”.
Lewis will look back at her third-round 76 as the reason she left Rio without a medal.
The former world No. 1 and victor of seven major championships was an unflappable front-runner the last three rounds and capped off her victory with a final-round 5-under-par 66. She put in a good effort, though. “Whether it was a worry or whether it was people thinking she’s going to do good– there was a little bit of confusion from me whether I can perform well this week or not, because I really haven’t performed well this year with the injury”. Charley is a good putter, but you need to be better than good at the top. Construction of new golf courses in the country has been banned since 2004 in most areas, in an attempt to preserve water and land. Stacy Lewis birdied the 16th and 17th holes, but missed a 15-foot birdie on the 18th and shot 66, one shot behind Feng. She got into contention the first day and barely wavered.
She then failed to get up and down from a greenside bunker at the 13th hole, three-putted the 14th from just off the green and didn’t take advantage of the drivable short par-4 16th.
That was until her ball came to rest in a bad position in the back left bunker on the 13 from where she bladed a shot into a bunker across the green, then eventually made a good 2.5m putt to save a double-bogey that took the wind from her sails in a hurry.
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“This really could be the highlight of my career”, she said.
