Through 36 holes at the Canadian Pacific Women’s Open, the 20-year-old Thai owns a three-shot lead after a flawless eight-under-par round of 64 on Friday vaulted her to 12-under for the tournament.
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Jutanugarn claimed her fifth title of the year, producing a controlled final round of 66 to win by four shots from Korea’s Sei Young Kim.
The 20-year-old Thai player won nine days after withdrawing from the Rio Olympics because of a left knee injury, a problem that nearly forced her to skip this event. I feel like a lot of expectations.
“I mean, we played with an Olympian (Julieta Granada) and a Solheim Cupper (Lizette Salas), and she’s higher up on the leaderboard than both of them right now”, Murphy said in ideal caddie speak.
South Korea’s In Gee Chun, the 2015 U.S. Women’s Open champion, was third at 18 under after a 69.
Lee, Sharp, Leblanc and Brooke Henderson – who sits at four under par after a second-round 68 that included a double-bogey on her penultimate hole – have their work cut out for them considering the aforementioned duo on top.
“After I won my first tournament, I feel like I reached my goal”, Ariya said after she won the US$2.25 million (S$3 million) Canadian Open and collected a cheque for US$337,500 on Sunday.
Champion Ariya and her Canadian Pacific Open trophy are well guarded by two members of the Royal Canadian Mounted Police, famous world wide as the Mounties. I’m just going to try to play good golf. “My game is really close to being really, really good so hopefully next week I’ll fix those little things and be closer to the top”.
Three-time victor Lydia Ko of New Zealand tied for seventh at 13-under. “I feel confident because I can hit my irons in the fairway”, she said, noting that the narrow layout at Priddis Greens Golf and Country Club outside Calgary limited her use of the driver.
Although she took a bogey at the par-4 16th hole, she ended the day with consecutive birdies at the 17th and 18th holes to finish the round 7-under 65 and the tournament 15-under 269.
“It means a lot to play good in front of everybody”, the six-foot-one, long hitter stated. I really want to have fun with my caddie on the course.
Kim had a 68, and Meadow shot 69. She also won the British Open last month and the 2013 Lalla Meryem Cup on the Ladies European Tour. “So after that I feel like just play golf, and it didn’t feel like anything changed”. Henderson is the highest ranked Canadian golfer in the world and was a favorite going into the event this week, finishing at a respectable seven-under-par.
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Ko won the event three of the last four years, the first two as an amateur.
