Women's British Open

[Putter]

Thanks for posting that BKB - Ai is like a breath of fresh air during an interview - I give her a lot of credit for answering most of the questions in English - it can't be easy. She seems like a very good-natured person. Fun to watch.

[bangkokbobby]

Originally Posted by Putter

Thanks for posting that BKB - Ai is like a breath of fresh air during an interview - I give her a lot of credit for answering most of the questions in English - it can't be easy. She seems like a very good-natured person. Fun to watch.

Love Ai-chan!

The Korean press is looking forward to big things out of their players...and why not...Se Ri...Jeong Jang...Ji Yai Shin...all British winners...although with all of her nicknames, I admit I was not familiar with "Little Angel" for Ji Yai...

link: Shin leads Koreans to dominate in British Open

Shin leads Koreans to dominate in British Open


World’s No.1 Shin Ji-yai

By Yoon Chul
Staff reporter

Last week’s Evian Masters winner Shin Ji-yai is looking to build on her success at the Women’s British Open, one of the four major events on the LPGA calendar.

Shin, who retook the top spot on the money list and Rolex rankings following her victory, has been scorching the fairways of late.

She has appeared in four competitions since sudden surgery due to acute appendicitis on June 9, and finished in the top five each time. She finished fifth at the Women’s U.S Open and topped the leader board at the Evian Masters.

To maintain her top spot over strong contenders such as Ai Miyazato, Suzann Pettersen and Cristie Kerr, Shin needs another remarkable win.

Under the LPGA’s point scheme, the Korean averages 10.66 points while Miyazato and Kerr are just behind her at 10.25 and 10.18, respectively. Pettersen is ranked fourth with 10.14.

The British Open, the last major competition of the year awards 50 points – 30 points more than non-majors, meaning the winner among them could snatch the top spot.

Shin has wonderful memories of the British Open as she was crowned champion in 2008.

In the Evian Masters, Shin also proved why she is still the golfer to beat. In the final round, then former world No. 1 was two shots off the lead. But her accurate iron approaches and bold putting in tense circumstances gave her the come-from-behind victory.

Clinching the top spot at the Royal Birkdale Golf Club will be much tougher as Shin doesn’t favor links courses. Kerr, on the other hand, takes a different view.

“I like it a lot. It's a different type of golf. You have to play the bounces. I really love this golf course,” Kerr said on the LPGA website.

“I just like how it's out in front of you and you can see where you need to go. And, you know, the approach shots into the green, they fit my eye. And these greens are very good. So I like the course a lot.”

Links courses, with which many female golfers don’t have a lot of experience with, are located on the coast amid sand dunes with few water hazards but feature thick rough and deep bunkers.

Usually the courses have wonderful scenery but it can be difficult for golfers to set low scores there.

In 2008, Shin lifted the trophy at inland Sunningdale. Last year, the 22-year-old Korean failed to defend her British Open crown on another links course, Royal Lytham & St. Annes, shooting 3-over par in the final round to finish tied for eighth.

“I will enjoy the challenge of the links course,” Shin said. “I want to emulate my seniors’ achievements and reclaim the top spot,” added Shin.

Among the other Korean contenders, Choi Na-yeon and Kim Song-hee are both in strong form and veteran Jang Jeong is making her return from wrist surgery.

In her last three events, Choi has one win and been runner-up twice. Though Kim hasn’t been victorious she has made 11 top 10 finishes times in 13 appearances in 2010.

Jang, who won at this same course in the 2005 Women’s British Open, finished in the top 10 at the Evian Masters.

In 2005, Jang won in a wire-to-wire victory, finishing at 16-under.

Shin, who is dubbed the “Little Angel,” turned professional in 2005.

She shone in the KLPGA in 2006, earning Rookie and Player of the Year honors with four victories. In 2007, Shin broke the KLPGA career money record only in 33 events - Il Mi-chung set in 99 - and recorded 16 top-10 finishes in 18 events, including nine victories.

Shin has 32 professional wins (20 in KLPGA, seven in LPGA, three in JLPGA, two on the Ladies Asian Golf Tour) in five seasons of full-time professional competition.

Shin was at a driving range in Korea in 2004 when her mother and two younger siblings were injured in a car accident. Her mother died as a result of her injuries and her siblings spent nearly a year in the hospital - with Shin at their side - before recovering. Her father invested her mother's life insurance money into Shin's golf career.

Another major win would see Shin continue to shine on the LPGA tour with the potential to do so for many years to come

[bangkokbobby]

Cristie Kerr...can she make it two Majors in 2010?

Cristie Kerr 2010 British Pre-Interview

[bangkokbobby]

...and Ji Yai's Presser...

Ji Yai Shin Pre-British 2010 Presser

...and Paula Creamer...

Paula Creamer 2010 British Presser

[bangkokbobby]

Audio messages from Paula Creamer and Laura Davies:

Audioboo / Paula Creamer, reigning U.S. Women's Open champ, is looking forward to trying for two straight majors.

Audioboo / Laura Davies is playing her 30th RICOH Women's British Open!

[bangkokbobby]

The Defending Champion, Catriona Matthew...

...cool...she also was awarded a Member of the Order of the British Empire...

...she also gives a few opinions about Alexis Thompson...

Catriona Matthew Defending British Champion

[bangkokbobby]

Paula Creamer was interviewed on ESPN...they disable embedding...but here is the clip...nice to see somebody (well...other than you know who) in an extended interview before a tournament...

YouTube - Paula Creamer Ready For The British Open

[bangkokbobby]

I'm a Seoul Sister fan...but I admit, I already miss Lorena...I want to see the best compete against the best and whatever happens...even if it means less trophies for some of my favorites...so be it...this was posted on the Ricoh site back on April 19th...

[bangkokbobby]

...the unfortunate reality of ladies golf lack of recognition...but even so, I would have thought a Scottish woman would have cashed in more than Catriona has for winning the British Open...if she had won Wimbledon, I think she would have...I know...apples and oranges...

link: Lack of recognition for Matthew riles Davies - Herald Scotland | Sport | Golf

Lack of recognition for Matthew riles Davies

Douglas Lowe

29 Jul 2010
Laura Davies, Britain’s most successful woman golfer, yesterday took a swipe at the lack of recognition over the past year of Catriona Matthew’s achievement in winning the Ricoh Women’s British Open.

“If one of the boys won it [the Open] they would be knighted overnight. It’s always been the same,” said the four-time major winner.

Matthew, who is due to receive the MBE, was the first Scot to win any women’s major and is defending her title this week at Royal Birkdale against a field of the world’s leading women players. But she does so having failed to cash in on a remarkable triumph at Royal Lytham that came 11 weeks after giving birth to her second daughter, Sophie.

The potential, for example, of Rory McIlroy winning the Open Championship is estimated at £10m which is about 500 times more than what is believed to be the five-figure sum value of Matthew’s single sponsorship over the last year. “It’s just one of these things. Male golfers get more media coverage and higher profiles, so they get bigger endorsement deals,” she said.

Matthew, 40, was disappointed at capturing only a brief endorsement from Aberdeen Asset Management. This was announced last week before the Evian Masters but has since been clarified as not the usual year-long arrangement but only for two weeks which, as things stand, will be over by Monday morning.

“It’s nice of them to do something and hopefully it can progress into more,” she said and added that in general: “I hoped to get a little bit more, but things are progressing so you never know.”

Davies was more blunt about Matthew’s situation and branded it “a disgrace” that she never made a top-10 listing in the BBC Sports Personality of the Year. “We’ve never done well in that,” she said. “The year I won two majors I didn’t even finish in the top three,” she said.

The comments came, ironically, as the BBC announced a new five-year deal up to 2016 for the Ricoh Women’s Open which will be broadcast this week in high definition for the first time.

Matthew, who was the first Scottish woman to win any major championship, featured an inward 30 including a hole-in-one in her second round last year. Tony Jacklin, who had won his Open at the same Royal Lytham course 40 years earlier, said: “What she did defied belief.”

With husband Graeme on the bag, she opens her defence at 7.14am in the company of US Open champion Paul Creamer and local club member Florentyna Parker, winner of this year’s Dutch Open. This time her daughters are with their grandparents at home in North Berwick.

Davies, the European No.1 having won twice this year at the age of 46, has been a long-time critic of slow play. Rounds reached six hours at St Andrews three years ago and she offered a novel way to speed things up. “Paintball them,” she suggested.

There are five Scots in the field, the others in the chase for the £261,500 top prize being Vikki Laing and Krystle Caithness, respectively the European No.10 and 14, Janice Moodie who plays on the LPGA Tour, and Lynn Kenny, who came though qualifying.

Michelle Wie is back in the golfing territory where she made her links debut at Formby six years ago at age 14 in the Curtis Cup, but she still has been in doubt about where she is having written on Facebook how much she is enjoying being in Southampton.

“It’s Southport, now, right?” she said.

[bangkokbobby]

Much respect to Cristie and Morgan...


Cristie Kerr and Morgan Pressel of the USA took time to meet Stephanie Ballay from Guernsey after Kerr had arranged to make a wish come true for Stephanie after she had written to the Guernsey Round Table Children's Wish with a request to meet her favourite golfer Cristie Kerr, who had then further surpised Stephanie by asking her good friend Morgan Pressel to make her day doubly memorable during the final day of practice as a preview for the 2010 Ricoh Women's British Open at Royal Birkdale on July 28, 2010 in Southport, England.

http://www.roundtable.co.uk/achievements/rtcw/