Yang completes emotional and historic victory
IN: News | ALPG | ANZ Ladies Masters (2006) | Wrap | by Bruce Young | 05 Feb 2006
Final Day Photo Gallery - ANZ Ladies Masters
Amy Yang, at the age of just 16 has become the youngest and only amateur to win an ALPG Tour event in Australia and the first to win a Ladies European Tour event since 1984 by holing a twenty foot putt at the first playoff hole to edge out American Catherine Cartwright by a shot to win the 2006 ANZ Ladies Masters. She becomes the first amateur to win a professional event in Australia since Brett Rumford won the Player's Championship in 1999.
It was perhaps justice that the youngster, who had withstood so many challenges on the final day and had actually lost her long time lead midway through her round, was able to come back and win. She got the title and Cartwright got the cheque. Perhaps there are times when golf is a fair game after all.
On a day where the challenges to the 16 year old amateur, Amy Yang, were expected to come thick and fast, it was she who made the first significant statement.
The Korean, who now attends Robina High School only a few kilometres from Royal Pines and who will be back studying there on Tuesday of next week, made the perfect start when she smashed her drive at the first and then followed up with a wedge to less than a foot. Yang and her coach on the Gold Coast, Lawrie Montague, have worked hard on taking fear out of the equation in preparing for any shot and clearly, given the circumstances, it has been working this week. Under perhaps her greatest pressure today she appeared to still have that thought process in mind.
The weather was a marked contrast to the first three days of the event. It was still warm, as it had been on the opening days, but the bright sunlight had given way to overcast skies which for many was a blessing. The breeze was still from the easterly direction it had come from all week and wafted between five and ten kilometres. It was a breeze just enough to make a difference with club selection.
One golfer who many predicted might apply early pressure was the Frenchwoman Ludivine Kreutz, who yesterday had produced a stunning finish to make up an incredible eight shots on the leader over her closing six holes. She was unable to carry that momentum into the early stages of the final round however when she dropped shots at the first and second to lose three shots to the leader.
Yang hit her fairway wood second onto the back edge of the green at the par five third and although her first putt from long range finished ten feet from the hole, she was still able to make it and moved to 13 under. She had then opened up a three shot lead over Americans Catherine Cartwright and Tiffany Joh, who had both birdied the third to move to 10 under. At nine under at that stage were Frenchwoman Gwladys Nocera and Swede Louise Stahle who had also picked up the almost compulsory birdies at the third. At the fourth hole Nocera joined the share of second when she birdied the short par four.
The birdies were coming thick and fast and so too were the eagles. After the hole in on yesterday by Ludivine Kreutz at the 14th, Korean Hyun-Hee Moon made it two for the tournament she holed in one at the 11th. It moved her five under for the day and seven under par for the event and after an opening round of 76 which appeared to have cost her any chance in the event of even making the cut, Moon was within three of second place.
Yang took bogey at the 5th after finding the bunker but she regained that shot with a birdie at the 7th from ten feet. Kreutz, who had struggled early, bounced back into the fray with birdies at the 6th and 7th and she and found herself at ten under and briefly in a share of second. The reason for it being brief is that in the group ahead Cartwright holed her approach at the par four eight for an eagle which saw her leapfrog both Nocera and Kreutz into second place alone.
At the 8th hole, Joh, who had just bogeyed the 7th, holed a putt from 30 feet for birdie to move to move to ten under and a share of third. Just a minute or two after doing so her playing partner Yang followed Joh's lead with a birdie of her own from around ten feet to lead by three over Cartwright and by four over Nocera, Joh and Kreutz.
Yang failed to get a birdie at the 9th when she missed from around six feet after being forced to lay up at the par five after her drive found the rough. Her playing partners Kreutz and Joh both birdied and at that point Yang led by one over Cartwright, who in the group ahead had also birdied the 9th, and by two over Joh and Kreutze.
The 10th hole was about to prove pivotal in the outcome. Yang pulled her tee shot left and was perhaps lucky to avoid the water. From a hanging lie with her feet well above her Yang seemed in two minds even as she hit her second. She seemed uncommitted to her approach and eventually found the front left bunker some thirty metres from the hole. Her bunker shot was neither good nor bad but when she three putted she had taken double bogey. That mistake was accentuated when her playing partner Kreutz holed for birdie from 60 feet, a move that would get her a share of the lead three minutes later.
Yang lost the lead in the tournament for the first time since midway through Friday's round when Cartwright, in the group ahead, hit a beautiful approach at the 12th and her birdie took her one ahead. Yang would respond when she herself hit two great woods just short of the 12th green and when she pitched to eight feet and holed it she had regained a share of the lead.
The biggest but perhaps quietest move on the leaderboard was coming from well back in the field. Yet another amateur, 17 year old Taiwan's Tseng Ya-Ni, the 2004 US Public Links Champion when beating Michelle Wie in the final, had moved from her starting position of 22nd to a share of third when she went to 12 under at the 17th. She had a chance at the last from 20 feet to apply the ultimate pressure to those four holes behind but was not able to do so. Still at 12 under par she had posted a score that the others would have to match or beat.
Swede Louise Stahle was also slowly but surely making her presence felt. When she birdied the 9th, she had turned in two under and was at ten under for the event. She birdied the tough 13th, then the par three 16th and she was at twelve under and in a four way share of second.
Back at the 15th hole Yang's drive was long, so much so that she was within easy reach of the green. She pulled her second into the greenside bunker and although she hit a god shot to six feet she missed and remained just one ahead. A golden opportunity to create a two shot cushion was gone but she was still in front.
She might have missed one there but at the 16th she hit her tee shot to three feet and she was not about to let this chance of a two shot cushion slip. She made it and went to 14 under and led by two over Tseng, Stahle, Cartwright and Joh.
At the 17th the leader was a little left with her tee shot and was perhaps unsure as to how her approach would come out of the light rough. It did not come out as quickly as she hoped and came to rest just short of the green. She ran her approach with a putter adjacent to the hole and made par.
Tiffany Joh had stayed in touch with a brilliant birdie at the 15th after a great pitch over the bunker. That got her to 12 under and she was one of three who had the chance to apply pressure over the closing three holes. She parred the 17th despite having a good opportunity there but at the 17th she hit her approach to 12 feet behind the hole and here was her chance to force the issue. A birdie would get her within one and with the potentially dangerous last to come the leader could then not afford any mistake. She made it and the difference between the two amateurs was just one.
Ahead, Cartwright needed a birdie. She hit a fine second at the last to within 20 feet. If she was able to make this then she would also move within one. She did just that much to the delight of the crowd and back on the tee the leader and the now joint second placed Joh would know exactly what was required. Yang needed a par to win and Joh a birdie to tie, at that stage at least.
At the last, Joh pulled her tee shot close to the fairway bunker and came to rest in a horror lie in the rough. Yang was long and straight as she had been all week. Joh was first to play and her shot reflected the lie. It came out low and left and she was left with perhaps 80 metres to the flag.
Yang, from the middle of the fairway, pulled her six iron second left and was up against the spectator stands. She was granted free relief but the shot she faced was difficult. The drop she took left her with an awkward lie and her shot indicated such. She finished 15 feet from the hole and when she missed she finished at 13 under and was at that point in a three way tie for the lead.
Joh had hit a fine third to five feet and she had a chance to join the playoff if she could make it. She did not and so it would be Amy Yang and Catherine Cartwright who would head back to the 18th tee.
At the first playoff hole Cartwright, who was first to play from the tee, opened up a window of opportunity for Yang when she found the fairway bunker. Yang was again long and straight from the tee. Cartwright hit a fine recovery from the bunker to the front of the green. Now it was Yang's turn. After pulling her second first time round, this time she found the green some twenty feet from the hole.
Cartwright hit her first putt five feet past and faced the prospect of a difficult par save. She was about to be put out of her misery however as Yang's putt was bold and straight and as it disappeared Yang fell into the arms of her father and burst into tears. For four long days she had been remarkably composed given what she scrutiny she was under and now that the job was done the emotions which she had kept in check began to flow. It was understandable for an older person but for one so young, even more so.
There have been other significant highlights in her amateur career such as the New Zealand Amateur Championship and the Queensland State title to date but this is clearly the start of something big.
It might have been the first time that both Yang and Cartwright had played in the presence of such a large crowd but there is nothing surer than they will do so again and perhaps not before too long.
Cartwright would say in her press conference later that she learnt a lot about herself this week both with her game and mentally. She was really pleased with her mental approach this week. She will now head to Hawaii for the next two weeks where she has starts in the first LPGA events of the season. While her emotions were mixed she said it was more a case of being happy than anything else.
Yang followed Cartwright into the press room and said she was more nervous about the press conference than she had been on the course. Her grasp of the English language is limited at this stage but she managed her way through it via a friend who helped with the translation. She was not too dismayed when she bogeyed the last (72nd) as she knew she still had one more chance. On Tuesday she heads back to school and has no intention of changing her schedule at this stage. When asked regarding the emotion she displayed when she holed the winning putt she said it was a combination of happiness and letting the emotions flow.
Tseng, Stahle and and Joh finished in a share of third while Nikki Campbell finished as the leading Australian when her last round of 68 saw her climb into a share of 6th place.
For the two pre tournament favourites, Karrie Webb and Ai Miyazato, they had disappointing weeks both for themselves and the tournament. Their loss however was the gain of Yang, Cartwright and others who had their turn to showcase their talents in the leaderboard absence of the superstars.
Photo - Anthony Powter
