Lewis wins Women's British Open with strong finish

Lewis wins Women's British Open with strong finish


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DOUG FERGUSON (AP Golf Writer) August 5, 2013AP - Sports








ST. ANDREWS, Scotland (AP) -- Stacy Lewis fell in love with the worst of St. Andrews.

The gray, old town lived up to its reputation the morning that Lewis arrived with the rest of the U.S. Curtis Cup team in the late spring of 2008, her final tournament as an amateur. They drove straight to the Old Course, and Lewis was in awe.

''We got off the plane and we got here early in the morning, and it was raining sideways and we all put on our rain jackets and rain gear and we came out and just walked around,'' Lewis said.

''Instantly, I fell in love with it. I think it's more the history than anything, just knowing all the great champions that have played here.''

Lewis can add her name to the list.

With a birdie-birdie finish, and a 5-iron into the 17th that is the very essence of links golf, Lewis rallied from a three-shot deficit with three holes to play and beat the blustery conditions Sunday with an even-par 72 for a two-shot victory.


''I love this golf course, and I think I was happy being here all week,'' Lewis said. ''And I was comfortable. And I think that's a lot of the reason I'm here right now.''

Some of her best golf was required.

The wind was strong enough that Lewis was the only player among the last 21 groups who teed off in the final round to shot par or better.

Everyone was making mistakes, and Lewis was not immune. She took three bogeys on the back nine, including a 5-foot par putt she missed that put her three behind with three to play.

Na Yeon Choi had a three-shot lead with six holes to play and quickly fell back with consecutive three-putt bogeys from some 80 feet.

Morgan Pressel, the 54-hole leader on a 36-hole Sunday, was tied for the lead at the turn and one shot behind when she found trouble off the tee at No. 12 and made double bogey. She never caught up. Hee Young Park made three straight bogeys on the back nine.
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South Korea's Inbee Park putts on the 9th green during the fourth round of the Women's British Open …

Lewis was the only one who recovered, and it took a shot that she says might have been the best of her career. She won't get much of an argument.

She couldn't remember the yardage, because sometimes the distance to the flag doesn't matter on a links course in blustery conditions. Lewis only knew she needed a birdie on one her last two holes to have any chance of winning the Women's British Open.

As she stood in the 17th hole, trying to picture the shot in her head, she would have happily settled for par. The famous Road Hole was the toughest all week at St. Andrews, and it's one of the toughest in the world in windy conditions.

The approach shot is one of the scariest at St. Andrews, with the Road Hole bunker front and center, and a road behind the green that spells trouble for anything long.

''The shot I saw was kind of a low 5-iron,'' she said. ''What we wanted to do was start it at the front right of the green and let it turn with the wind, and it would knock it down, it would hit into the slope and it would roll up there. Somehow, it did that.

''It's one of those shots you see in your head, but you don't really ever pull it off,'' Lewis said. ''And just off the club face, it was perfect.''
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Stacy Lewis of the USA reacts after playing her shot on the 5th fairway during the fourth round of t …

The ball rolled up to 3 feet for a birdie, and walking off the 17th green, Lewis said she told caddie Travis Wilson, ''One more.''

From about 40 yards in front of the 18th green, Lewis used her putter to go through the Valley of Sin. It stopped 25 feet behind the hole, and she made that for a most remarkable birdie-birdie finish.

Lewis stooped and put both hands on her knees, out of breath from such a whirlwind finish.

She finished 8-under 280, and then only had to wait to see if anyone could catch her.

Choi held out hope for a birdie at the 18th, but her shot into the 17th was too strong and caught the back collar of rough.

Choi missed a 6-foot par putt to fall two shots behind, and the need for a birdie turned into a need for a miracle. She failed to hole out her second shot, and Lewis had her second major.
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Stacy Lewis of the US poses with the trophy after winning Women's British Open golf championship on …

Choi shot 73 and tied for second with Park, who had a 73. Pressel, who had a one-shot lead over Lewis going into the final round, also made bogey on the 17th and finished three shots behind after a 76. She tied for fourth with Suzann Pettersen, who closed with a 74.

''It's just crazy,'' Lewis said. ''I was just hanging in there all day, and then 17 and 18 just happened so fast that I don't know if it's really hit me yet.

''It was so hard you had to stay focused on the next shot. You couldn't even really think about the end. I made par on 16 and thought if I could par 17 and birdie 18 somehow, that might be good enough for a playoff. My patience is what won it for me today, and it's really cool to have that trophy.''

That's two trophies from St. Andrews, this one all to herself. She went 5-0 in her matches at the Curtis Cup in 2008, leading the Americans to victory.

Most of the attention was on the other Park - Inbee Park - who was going after history at the home of golf.

Park won three straight LPGA Tour majors to start the year, and she was trying to become the first professional golfer to win four straight majors in the same season.
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Stacy Lewis of the US poses with the trophy after winning Women's British Open golf championship on …

She started out by making six birdies in 10 holes. But it all went downhill from there. Park struggled with her swing, and then reading the greens, and she only fixed one problem.

''These greens were tough to judge,'' Park said. ''One minute they were quick, one minute they were slow.''

She went 74-78 over her final two rounds and tied for 42nd, 14 shots out of the lead.

''I'm really relieved,'' Park said. ''I really enjoyed this week, every moment I was here. But it's tough to be in the center of everything for a week, and I feel exhausted.''

So was Lewis, for an entirely different reason.

The Solheim Cup teams were decided Sunday, so Lewis returned to a news conference dressed in a navy blue Solheim Cup jacket.

That night, she went back to the Dunvegan Hotel with her team to celebrate.

The drinks were on her.

Golf notebook: Oosthuizen out two-plus months

Golf notebook: Oosthuizen out two-plus months
Tom LaMarre, The Sports Xchange August 5, 2013The SportsXchange








--Louis Oosthuizen of South Africa, who captured the 2010Open Championship at St. Andrews but has been hampered by injuries since, will miss at least two months because of lingering neck, back and hip ailments.



"It's obviously very disappointing to miss out on playing in such prestigious tournaments," Oosthuizen said in a statement released through by his management company, ISM. "But these are injuries that I have been managing for most of the season. It is important that I now give myself the proper time to recover."



He ranks 26th in the European Tour's Race to Dubai, and he hopes to return at the Dunhill LinksChampionship at St. Andrews, Carnoustie and Kingsbarns late in late September.



--Tom Watson, the United States Ryder Cup captain for the matches next year at Gleneagles Resort in Scotland, was so disappointed in his play in his two most recent majors that he indicated that the end of his competitive career might be near.



"I don't know how many more years I'm going to play as far as my career is concerned," Watson told the Daily Record in Scotland. "I'm starting to see the end of it.



"I still have the ability to compete, but I have to be playing on a links course like the Open that takes the driver out of the kids' hands. Augusta is different. I can't hit it far enough off the tee to allow me to compete, so my years are numbered there."



However, his Open Championship exemption runs out next year at Royal Liverpool in Hoylake, England.



--Y.E. Yang of South Korea has been selected captain of the Asian team for the Royal Trophy matches against a European team that will be captained by Jose Maria Olazabal of Spain.



"I am truly honored to undertake the leadership role of Asian team captain for the next edition of the Royal Trophy," said Yang, who became the first Asian male to capture a major title when he took down Tiger Woodsin the 2009 PGA Championship at Hazeltine.



Yang replaces Joe Ozaki of Japan, who led Asia in five of the six previous editions of the eight-man event.




Olazabal will lead the European team for the second consecutive year and the third time overall.



Founded in 1860, the Olympic Club is the oldest athletic club in the United States, and the four-ball competition will be the 10th USGA championship Olympic has hosted, including the U.S. Open won by Webb Simpson last year.



"When we set forth to identify those sites for these new USGA national championships, it was our goal primarily to create a wow factor when announcing these sites and conducting these inaugural championships," said John Bodenhamer, USGA senior managing director.



The introduction of the four-ball championships, while widely applauded, also created something of a controversy because it means the demise of the U.S. Amateur Public Links Championship, which dates to 1922, and the U.S. Women's Amateur Public Links.



"All of a sudden, in this kind of format, you're going to have guys who before didn't want to put their reputation on the line or whatever, they're going to be able to sort of hide with their partner psychologically and maybe play some great golf."



--The 2015 Ricoh Women's British Open will be contested at Turnberry Resort on the Firth of Clyde in South Ayrshire, Scotland, only the second time the event has been held on the famed Ailsa Course, tournament officials announced at St. Andrews.



"I am really pleased to hear that the Ricoh Women's British Open will be returning to Turnberry," said the 38-year-old Webb, a member of the World Golf Hall of Fame who has claimed seven major victories among her 54 professional titles.



Turnberry has been home to the Open Championship four times, including 1977, when Tom Watson won the famed "Duel in the Sun" over Jack Nicklaus.



Stacy Lewis won the Ricoh Women's British Open last week on the Old Course at St Andrews, and the tournament will be played at Royal Birkdale in Southport, England, next year.



The club, located 40 miles west of Seoul in the country's largest economic development zone, celebrated its opening in September 2010 with the Songdo Championship, an official event on the Champions Tour.



"We have always felt strongly about JNGC Korea as a host venue because of its location in the Songdo International Business District, its proximity to the Incheon International Airport, the quality hotels nearby, and the club's proximity to a large population area," said Nicklaus, who was captain of the United States team four times in the Presidents Cup.

Gary Woodland wins Reno-Tahoe Open

Gary Woodland wins Reno-Tahoe Open


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SCOTT SONNER (Associated Press) August 5, 2013AP - Sports








RENO, Nev. (AP) -- Narrowly missing birdie attempts early on, Gary Woodland told himself to be patient as he made the turn in the final round of the Reno-Tahoe Open.

It paid off down the stretch when he nearly lost his ball in the pine needles and sagebrush on the par-4 14th before chipping in from the rough from 58 feet for one of his four birdies Sunday en route to his second PGA Tour victory.

''I couldn't get any putts to go in early,'' Woodland said. ''I felt like I hit every lip and lipped out every hole.''

''I was hitting great putts and I just kept telling myself, 'Just keep grinding, keep grinding and you'll get something to drop,'' he said.

''That was the big key for me was just to say patient. And finally - I missed a bunch of putts obviously, but the chip was unbelievable on 14 because that gave me some momentum,'' he said.


Woodland finished with 44 points in the modified Stableford format that awards eight points for double eagle, five for eagle, two for birdie, zero for par, minus-one for bogey and minus-three for double bogey or worse.

Jonathan Byrd and Andres Romero tied for second with 35 points, and Brendon Steele had 33 at Montreux Golf Club on the edge of the Sierra.

Woodland, also the 2011 Transitions Championship winner as a tour rookie, earned $540,000 for the victory and got a spot next week in the PGA Championship.

''It felt like it was meant to be this week,'' said Woodland, whose best finishes this year had been three ties for 16th at the Phoenix Open, Memorial and AT&T National.

Byrd had an eagle, seven birdies and a bogey to set a single-day scoring record with 18 Stableford points that would have equaled a round of 64 under the usual format.
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Chris Riley, who played his collegiate golf at UNLV, studies his putt on the 518-yard, par-5 13th ho …

Dicky Pride and David Mathis tied for fifth with 32 points, followed by Seung-Yui Noh and Rory Sabatini with 31, and Chris DiMarco with 30. David Toms and Stuart Appleby tied for 16th with 26 points.

Woodland, the 2011 PGA Tour rookie of the year who played basketball at Washburn before transferring to Kansas and becoming a golfer for the Jayhawks, didn't have a bogey Sunday until the 17th hole thanks to some nifty work around the greens getting up and down to save par five times on the day.

''Even though I wasn't hitting greens I was hitting it in the right spots and gave myself opportunities to get up and down,'' he said.

On the front nine, Woodland had sand saves out of three greenside bunkers and made his only birdie from 7 feet on the par-3 second.

On the 367-yard, par-4 14th, he drove into a waste area with pine needles and sagebrush short and right of the green, then hit 20 yards over the green into the rough before watching his 58-foot chip roll against the pin and into the cup.
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Andres Romero, left, of Argentina, walks off the green after a birdie at the 171-yard, uphill par-3 …

''I got lucky to find my ball on 14 there in the hazard and I kind of chopped it out,'' Woodland said. ''The chip that went in I was just trying to get it on the green, let alone go in. It was one of the best shots I've ever hit.''

He added a 21-foot birdie putt on the next hole to open up an eight-point lead over the late-charging Byrd and Woodland's playing partner Steele, who made his birdie putt ahead of Woodland on the 15th.

''To follow up after Brendon Steele made the putt on 15, to answer him was huge,'' Woodland said. ''He had a lot of momentum and I sort of stole it all back and sort of rode it the rest of the way.''

He closed with a birdie on the 616-yard 18th when he drove 338 yards into the middle of the fairway, hit his approach 231 yards just in front of the green, chipped to 2 feet and tapped in for the win that also earned him his tour card for the next two years and boosted him from 116th to 54th in the FedExCup standings.

Byrd birdied five of his first seven holes then eagled the par-5 13th when he hit his second shot 219 yards to inside 7 feet.
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Gary Woodland hits his tee shot on the 429-yard, par-4 12th on Sunday Aug. 4, 2013 in the final roun …

''My whole mindset was just to be a little more aggressive and give ourselves chances and just free it up,'' he said. ''And I was able to do that today getting off to a hot start. ... Just felt like I was off to the races.''

Romero, who finished third at Reno last year and was this year's second-round leader, had five birdies and a bogey to jump from 137th to 110th in FedExCup points. The top 125 advance to the playoffs.