Tseng overcomes Webb to win Aus Open

BY Liz White | ALPG Tour | 2010 Women's Australian Open | Round Four | 14 Mar 2010

Taiwan’s Yani Tseng blazed to a 9 under victory and Karrie Webb staggered to a 5 under third, in the final round of the Handa Australian Open at Melbourne’s Commonwealth Golf Course today.

Splitting the two was the defending champion, Britain’s Laura Davies, who finished three shots behind Tseng on 6 under for the tournament.

While it is hard to deny the likeable Tseng her victory, it was after all a brilliant bogey free 7 under 66 that set up the win today, it was perhaps made easier by Webb’s uncharacteristic Sunday slumber.

Tseng started the day at 2 under and four shots behind the leader, Webb. While she told friends last night she was capable of a good final round, she never dared hope that the woman who has won four Australian Open crowns would shoot over par on a Sunday.

With Webb’s pure 11 under 61 round last week at Royal Pines fresh in everyone’s mind, Tseng was not alone in her thinking.  And after just five holes today, everything seemed in order for Webb to take the Ladies Masters/ Australian Open double for a third time.

She had streaked ahead by three over Britain’s Laura Davies and the third player in the final group, Italy’s Giulia Sergas. Tseng thought it was game set and match to the Queenslander.

“I told my caddy ’let’s try to get second place when I saw that she was three under for the day’,” she said.

“We just played our game and tried to be second and after 12 holes I thought: ’Oh I am only two shots behind,’ maybe I need to play a little bit aggressive and smart.”

Tseng saw her chance and grabbed it. Her putter caught fire. Webb’s went ice cold. The putter that was so brilliant last week deserted her today. But Tseng, who you almost could say had a Webb like day with the putter, could do no wrong, holing them from everywhere. In her last six holes she reeled off four phenomenal birdies to wrest the Patricia Bridges Bowl from all comers.

Her putting blitz came after she changed made an alteration to her game.

“On Friday I changed my putting grip, now I really feel the speed of these greens because this is a tough course and you just need to be patient and if you lose a little focus it is going to be really bad,” she said. 

It’s hard to know whether Tseng would have played so aggressively had Webb sunk a few putts. Maybe she was tired after four tournaments in as many weeks?

“I didn’t feel as weary today on the course as I did yesterday although I know that it has been a long four weeks, not that I am going to use that as an excuse,” Webb said.

“I was feeling really good out there and then played a few scrappy holes on 6 and 7 and I really lost some momentum there and just didn’t really hit it as good after that.

“I didn’t trust myself as much as I would have liked and then the putts weren’t going in and it was a tough struggle on the back nine.”

Webb’s round fell apart on the 521m par 5 6th where she drove her tee shot into the right hand fairway bunker, pulled her next into the left hand rough then put her third into the greenside bunker. The ball came flying out and over the back of the green. While she played a stunning chip to give her a tap in murmurs went around the crowd.

The murmurs became louder as Webb bogeyed her next hole and by the turn she was back to where she started the day on 6 under with just a one shot lead over playing partner Italian Giulia Sergas.

The LPGA Hall of Famer knew she had to dig deep and so she did on the very next hole with a birdie and the lead.  But she gave the field another chance after bogeying the eleventh.

Try as she might she couldn’t get the putts to drop but defending champion Laura Davies, who had so far had an up and down day, all of a sudden got the ball rolling.

She was behind Webb for most of the day but overtook her with two birdies on her two final holes. While the 46-year-old was ultimately happy with her title defence she was none too pleased with an incident that happened early in her day.

On the par 5 6th, her second shot sprayed right into the crowd. When she walked up to find her ball, the spectator advised Davies that her ball had ricocheted off his ankle.

“If it had missed him it would have gone right through the scrub and I think I would have had a clear shot onto the green but I had to get on my knees and tap it with a driver and came up short,” she said.

“If he hadn’t have said anything it would have been okay but I was so worked up. I mean it wasn’t his fault in a way, but he should have been watching, you know.

“I just wish he hadn’t have told me I was pretty rocked.”

Not that Davies was using the mid round drama as an excuse.

“I missed too many putts in the middle of the round and fell away a bit and by the time I had recovered, Yani had 3 or 4 birdies in six holes and I was gone really,” she said.

“Yani just had one of those rounds. On this course to shoot 7 under on the final day she is the worthy champion. You can’t really say much more about it to be honest.”

Australian Katherine Hull and Giulia Sergas finished in a tie for 5th  on 4 under 288, a shot ahead of Australian Lindsey Wright.