Tseng a class above at Carnoustie
BY Bruce Young | Ladies European Tour | 2011 Ricoh Womens British Open | Wrap | 01 Aug 2011
Yani Tseng has added yet another major championship to her already impressive list of significant titles with a four shot victory at the Ricoh Women’s British Open at Carnoustie in Scotland.
Tseng started the final round two behind the surprise leader Germany’s Caroline Masson but quickly hit the front with a solid start and a lot of help from Masson. Masson dropped seven shots in her first twelve holes and her brave challenge was over as the Taiwanese star swept past her and took control.
Tseng suffered a minor hiccup in the middle of her round but birdied three of her last five holes to win by four over Brittany Lang with former champion Sophie Gufstafson in third position one shot behind Lang.
Korea’s Amy Yang finished 4th after her equal best final round of 67.
Tseng will further extend her lead at the top of the Rolex World Rankings and threatens to now dominate women’s golf in the manner that Annika Sorenstam and Lorena Ochoa did throughout most of the 2000’s.
She was delighted with the win but indicated that it was not quite as easy as the four shot margin suggested. “It feels really good. I played really consistently today, and I just had fun. But I was a little nervous before I teed off. My stomach was hurting, and I feel really nervous. But after the first tee I felt really good. I just needed to be patient today. 18 holes is long, so I just trust and play one shot at a time today.
“On No. 15, I had a 10-footer to save par which was really huge for me because I’ve been struggling with my putting this morning, in the morning round, but after that there was more confidence with my putting. I felt like Brittany Lang and Catriona Matthew is pretty close to me, a couple shots different. But it feels really good to win this tournament again.”
The 22 year old won her fifth major today but used a simple reminder to keep things going. “Yeah, I looked at my yardage book, a put a little note in my yardage put that said good posture, good preparation, smile, and so I looked at yardage book and just kept telling myself, okay, sometimes on links golf course you’re just going to get bad luck easy, and just forget about that, always look forward, good posture, chin up, and then smile, and it helps a lot.”
Karrie Webb was the only one of eight Australians in the field to make the cut, the three time winner of the event finishing 22nd.
All honours however were with the winner who bounced back from an ordinary week by her standards at last week’s Evian Masters to again assert her dominance of the female game.
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