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Ten Australians will be at The Royal Liverpool Golf Club in Hoylake this week looking to capture the final major title for 2012, the Ricoh Women’s British Open.
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Leading the Australian contingent is world number 21, Karrie Webb, who is a multiple winner of the event. Webb is joined by other exempted players Katherine Hull, Lindsey Wright, Sarah-Jane Smith, Karen Lunn, Rebecca Artis and Stacey Keating, all of whom qualified through their respective Tour’s exemption categories. Joining them, after making it through the tough final qualifying on Monday are Stephanie Na, Rachel Bailey and Nikki Garrett.
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Webb, has a fantastic record in the Open Championship, having won the title three times, 1995 (when it wasn’t a major), 1997 and 2002. She chose to skip last week’s LPGA Kingsmill Championship to arrive early in Hoylake for a weekend practice round. Webb hasn’t played Royal Liverpool before but says she can’t wait for the tournament to get underway.
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“I love the British Open! Its one of my favourite tournaments to play.” Webb said from England.
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When asked to explain her success over the years she responded “I think I have played well at the British over the years because links golf brings out a lot of creativity. I think sometimes I can tend to get bogged down technically but when you play links golf, the course and the weather conditions don&apost really allow you to try to be perfect. You play shots that you don&apost normally practice a lot so there really is no need to think technically, just allow natural feel to take over.”
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Webb has had a solid but not spectacular year thus far and was in contention at the Wegman’s LPGA Championship right up until the last couple of holes. More recently, she finished runner-up at the Evian Masters, where Inbee Park put on a flawless putting display to deny her a chance at victory.
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“ I think my form is pretty decent. Some of my golf has shown me that I am close. I have done a lot of technical work this year to improve things so now it’s a matter of putting that to one side for an entire tournament and letting it happen.”
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There is no more experienced a player in this year’s field than 1993 Champion, Karen Lunn. The ageless Lunn is playing some of the best golf of her career and almost 20 years on from her biggest win, she enters this week as the highest ranked Australian on the LET Money List. Her links course experience together with a game suited to windy links conditions, could see her feature on the leaderboard come Sunday afternoon.
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Whilst Lunn and Webb seek their second and fourth titles, respectively, compatriot Stacey Keating says her goal for the week is to make the cut, in just her second major appearance.
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“Well, since I haven’t made a cut in a major before, that would be first and then take it from there I guess! Just want to focus on my game and treating it like another week.” Keating said earlier this week.
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Treating it like any other week was one of the things the 25-year-old took from her first major experience at last year’s Championship at Carnoustie.
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“I learned a lot last year, as much as it’s a big event, and a major, you can&apost treat it too differently. I think you do need to prepare slightly different as links golf requires different types of shots. But as in mind set, I want to treat it like any other event.”
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Keating did manage a practice round a couple of weeks ago. “A nice way to put it is that it&aposs going to be a good test! Narrow fairways, thick rough and there has been a lot of rain, so the fairways are very lush and there is very little run, which is not what I expected.”
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On her form, “I have been quite happy with my form of late, my putting has been feeling good which is always nice. I have had quite a few good scores, just haven’t managed to put it all together yet. So fingers crossed this is the week”.
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The defending champion is Rolex World No.1 Yani Tseng. Tseng has been in a mini slump of late and with so many players in great form, she will have her work cut out to defend the title. Leading the charge will be American Stacy Lewis, South Koreans Inbee Park and current US Open Champion, Na Yeon Choi. One who cannot be overlooked is15-year-old amateur Lydia Ko who is the youngest competitor in the 144 field and whose performance will certainly be followed with much interest. The current US Amateur Champion astounded LPGA professionals and golf fans around the world when she won last month’s CN Canadian Women’s Open against a stellar field of the world’s top ranked players.
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There are 21 Major Champions in the line-up, boasting 41 Major Championships between them.
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The Royal Liverpool Golf Club, also known as Hoylake, is the second oldest seaside links golf course in England. It was built on a racecourse in 1869.
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Australian golf fans can watch all the action live on Fox Sports 3 starting at 10pm on Thursday evening.
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The Ricoh Women’s British Open was founded by the Ladies Golf Union (LGU) in 1976 and is staged in conjunction with IMG, the world’s largest sports marketing company. The event has been co-sanctioned by the LPGA and LET since 1994 and gained Major status in 2001.
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144 players will tee it up Thursday (UK time), after 36 holes the cut will be made to the low 65 scores and ties. Prizemoney for the Championship is US$2.5 million.
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