The Queen reigns supreme at ANZ Masters

BY Liz White | ALPG Tour | 2010 ANZ Ladies Masters | Round Four | 07 Mar 2010

The Queen of Royal Pines, Karrie Webb, has run away with her seventh ANZ Ladies Masters, firing off a masterful course record 11 under 61, to defeat Katherine Hull and Korean Bo-Mee Lee by six shots.

Today’s display by the Queenslander was simply scintillating, her 30-foot birdie putt on the last, the exclamation mark on an extraordinary round.

Webb finished the day at 26 under par, equalling her own lowest winning score in the 21-year-history of the Masters event. Her 11 under par also equalled her lowest ever round.

“It’s a great feeling and boost of confidence for me going into the year,” she said.

“Today’s win is up there with them. It really felt great, especially the last few days, tee to green I played very well and putted exceptionally well.”

Much had been made of the final day duel between Webb and Hull, the pair never having faced off on a Sunday before. And on the front nine, the duo enthralled.

“The quality of golf today was unbelievable,” Webb said.

“Katherine was pushing me all the way. Just when I thought I had created a bit of breathing space she would come right back with a birdie.”

Three decades on the tour certainly counts for something. With the front nine raining ten birdies and an eagle between the pair, the Queenslander simply kept the faith.

“It couldn’t have gone on forever where we were just making birdies on top of each other, and one of us was going to break,” Webb said.

“Katherine didn’t break but she stopped making birdies for a couple of holes and I made a couple and that gave me some breathing room.”

Perhaps Webb might have known she was set for something special. Early in the round on the 341m par 4 7th, she slam- dunked her 9 iron from 115 metres out. The eagle gave her a three shot lead but the 35-year-old was not about to start counting her chickens.

“I didn’t think it was my day until I got through 15,” she said.

“I was just trying to knuckle down and make some putts.”

The remarkable ace might have been enough to put any player off, but Hull is not easily intimidated.

“There are 72 holes in a golf tournament and lots can happen, you can have two shots swings in one hole and Karrie did on that hole.

“It was just a matter of being patient in this game.”

Hull was disappointed with her two bogeys today but lamented that normally a Sunday round of six under gets the job done.

“Most weeks it would be enough but Karrie just played flawless golf and you can never rule out a Hall of Fame Player can you?” she laughed.

“It was just rock solid she was swinging it well all day and just rolling them in from everywhere.

“It was an absolute clinic on Karrie’s part.”

Webb said Hull had pushed her so hard all day that she was exhausted near the end.

“I was on 13 and I was trying to work out how many under I was,” she said.

“I knew I was only two ahead and I was eight under and I was like; ’who would have thought I would be eight under through twelve and still be two shots ahead?”

“I was really starting to struggle, just being mentally tired.”

But as true champions do, the 7 time major winner found something else in the tank with two more birdies on 14 and 15. At this point there was a real chance Webb would shoot a magical 59.

“The thought went through my mind that if I birdie the last three I could shoot 59,” she said.

“But then I just went, ’I am too tired to think about it, to even get nervous about it, if it happened it happened.”

At one stage today it looked like the third player in the group, Korean Bo-Mee Lee, was going to be caught in the Webb, Hull crossfire.

But she stuck to her own game and despite trailing Webb by four and Hull by two after ten holes, the plucky 21-year-old rallied with two birdies on the back to finish equal second with Hull. She played 72 holes remarkably bogey free.

“Wow, it’s not a lot of times you do that and not hold the trophy at the end of the week,” Webb said.

Hull put up a great effort as the defending champion and was not disgraced; she was just blown away by one of golf’s greatest players.

“I don’t think I necessarily learnt anything from Karrie but I certainly learnt a bit more about my game and what I have to do to get there,” Hull said.

“It was nice that I challenged her early but she just came home guns blazing and deserved the win, she played great.”

Today’s seventh ANZ Ladies Masters has netted Webb over $1 million from this even alone and such is her dominance at Royal Pines, that she has posted 14 top ten finishes from 19 starts.

Should she win the Handa Women’s Australian Open in Melbourne next week it will make it the third time she has won both tournaments back to back.

“I feel good about my game so we’ll see how I rock up on Thursday and I am looking forward to next week,” she said.