The changeable weather that marred the earlier rounds of this 2010 Ricoh Women’s British Open Golf Championship broke into a warm sunny day for the final round today.As predicted, the leading pair of Taiwanese Yani Tseng (-12 overnight) and Australian Katherine Hull (-8) were not be caught but it all became very tense as Hull drew ever closer to the leader, with just one shot separating them by the 15th hole.
Both parred out for the next 2 holes meaning that it all came down to the last hole with Tseng still holding a 1 shot advantage.
After a nail biting odyssey through long grass and bunker, the championship all came down to the final exchange of shots on the green. Both players parred out again, meaning Tseng held out to win, having led the competition from start to finish.
Outside contender Brittany Lincicome saw her overnight 5under drop to just 1 under par by the end of the day as she was overtaken in the final standings by Morgan Pressel (-4) Cristie Kerr ( -6), NY Choi (-7) and Hee-Kyung Seo (-6).
The biggest gains were to be had by Koreans 3 Na Yeon Choi and Amy Yang who both hit -4 on the day to elevate themselves to 3rd and 5th respectively
Japanese megastar Ai Miyazato shot a spectacular -5 to come back from +3 overnight to finish on -2 – form that would have put her right in contention had she not had a bad couple of earlier rounds.
American poster girl Paula Creamer had struggled all week with a hand injury and only managed + 2 while 2008 champion Ji Yai Shin was unable to build significantly on her overnight -2 and finished on -1.
Top Brits were Wales’s Becky Brewerton +2, followed by Henrietta Zuel and Melissa Reid both on +4. Birkdale’s own young talent Florentyna Parker finished up on +7, level with Scot Janice Moodie, with veteran campaigner Laura Davies drooping 5 shots on the final day to finish on +11.
Final Standings
1st Yani Tseng (Taiwan) -11
2nd Katherine Hull (Aus) -10
3rd Na Yeon Choi (Korea) -7
3rd In –Kyung Kim (Korea) -7
5th Amy Yang (Korea) -6
