One of South Africa’s Women’s World Cup of Golf pair, Ashleigh Simon, was joined in the Ladies European Tour’s second event of the 2008 season by Stacy Lee Bregman at the Kingston Heath Golf Club in Melbourne, Australia, on the weekend, but it was only Simon who played out the competition’s four days, after Bregman failed to make the half-way stage.
Bregman struggled throughout the tour, carding four double-bogies added to 10 bogies against two birdies and one eagle, for a fourteen-over 160 at the halfway mark, missing the cut by five shots.
Simon demonstrated her ability to hang in there with the world’s best to finish in the event’s top 17, carding for a three-over 295 alongside Australian amateur Claire Choi and England’s Lisa Hall, a total of eleven shots behind multiple tour winner, Australia’s Carrie Webb.
Simon kept her best till the last round, signing a one-under par 72 in a day which saw her sink four birdies against three bogies in a tournament which saw her favour the first nine, where she sunk eight birdies to five bogies, the second half costing her ten bogies against four birdies, her worst record coming at the 15th hole flag.
In her second year as a professional, Simon adds event winnings of Euros 3,685.16 for the year.
The LET event was won on Sunday by Australia’s Karrie Webb, who retained the Australian Open with a birdie at the second hole of a sudden death play-off, where Webb defeated Women’s World Cup of Golf champion Ji-Yai Shin, after both players finished tied on eight-under-par 284 in regulation.
Webb rolled in a twelve foot birdie putt at the par-four 18th hole to take her fourth national title, to add to previous wins in 2000, 2002 and 2007.
Both Shin and Webb carded six-under-par 67s in the final round of the championship, scores which tied for the lowest of the week, but Webb admitted that she hadn’t expected to have to shoot 67 to win the tournament, but she came from two strokes behind Shin with three holes to play to tie for the lead.
She birdied the 16th and 17th holes, before giving herself a chance to take the championship with a 12 foot birdie putt at the 72nd hole. The ball rolled past the left lip of the cup, denying Webb the victory in regulation, but it did help her to read the line of the putt when it came to the second hole in the play-off.
"The first time I played the 18th in regulation I hit it (the putt) actually where I thought and it broke so much more," Webb explained. "On the second play-off hole I couldn’t see the break so I just had to trust it."
When Webb saw that Shin, playing in the penultimate group, was leading by two shots, Webb admitted that she had to step up.
"When I got to the 15th green I hadn’t seen a leader board for quite a while so it was quite surprising to see that I was two shots behind and I had to put myself in another gear," said the 33-year-old winner of 45 tournaments around the world, including seven major championships.
"I knew Shin wasn’t going to make any mistakes coming in and I needed to birdie at least two of the last three holes, which I managed to do. I guess the old girl still has plenty of petrol in the tank."
Webb, who in 2005 was the youngest player to be inducted into the World Golf Hall of Fame, recorded seven birdies and one bogey in her final round, as did the runner-up, 19-year-old Shin.
Webb and Shin began the day at two-under-par, a stroke behind the overnight leader Australian Lindsey Wright.
Meanwhile, the 33-year-old World No.3 Webb is hoping to follow up last week’s win with another victory at this week’s ANZ Ladies Masters, and is aiming to win the event for a seventh time at Royal Pines Resort on the Gold Coast in Queensland, Australia.
Ashleigh Simon’s World Cup partner Laurette Maritz joins her and Bregman in Australia for the tour’s third event, which has suffered inclement conditions, and is likely to bring high scores across most of the event’s leaderboard.
Webb previously captured the title four times in a row from 1998-2001 and then again in 2005 and 2007. In 2007 the seven-time major champion won her national Open at Royal Sydney and then defeated South Korean Ji-Yai Shin by two strokes at the Masters a week later, beating her own course record with a 62 in the third round.
Players were unable to practise on the waterlogged course at Royal Pines Resort on Monday and Tuesday, due to eight inches of rainfall over the weekend, followed by further downpours.
Owing to foreboding weather forecasts, tournament organisers have brought the first round tee times forward to 6.30am in an attempt to complete as much of the 72-hole event as possible between Thursday and Sunday.
Tournament chairman Bob Tuohy, said: "The aim is to get at least 18 holes in the can before Friday evening. If we’re lucky we might have 36 holes. Then we’ll re-group and go day by day going forward as we can with the object to complete as many holes as we can."
Webb said: "I know my game is pretty good. I’ll look forward to hopefully playing (in the Pro Am) tomorrow. If we don’t see the course till we tee up I’ll know that I’ve played well here so many years that I don’t think there will be much adjusting to get used to it."
She said that one of the keys to playing well would lie in not over-reading the flat greens. "I know they’ve had quite the wet season on the Gold Coast so I would say that the greens will be a little slower and grainier than they usually are. That will probably be the biggest challenge."
(0 rating, 0 votes, rated)
Loading...
