LYTHAM ST ANNES, ENGLAND | How the photographers loved it as Japan’s colourful Shiho Kuwaki won the 50th edition of the AIG Women’s Open at Royal Lytham & St Annes with a two-hole playoff sealing her victory against Germany’s Esther Henseleit. No-one mentioned the prize money of $1.5 million, for everything was about a cracking championship involving the top, if often tired, players in the world.
For much of the last afternoon, it was feared that play would carry on into the late evening. Yet, if that were to happen, Kuwaki was still going to light up the night in her luminous green sweater, her multi-coloured nails, her patterned eyelashes and her obvious delight in knowing that she is the most famous of the Japanese golfing fashionistas. “Looking good,” she chuckled, “gives me confidence.”
Earlier in the week, when someone had noted how her clothing was of the same Loudmouth Golf brand as John Daly’s but that she looked the more fetching of the two, she had answered with a delighted “Thank you” and a nod of the head.
She didn’t go out to warm up before what was a likely playoff involving not just Henseleit but America’s Yealimi Noh, who were paired in the last twosome. Instead, she slumped into a chair in the players lounge and cuddled a hand warmer. Her head was bowed as the pair faced 45-footers on the 18th green but she leapt to her feet as the crowd shrieked when Henseleit, putting first, holed for her all-important birdie.
Kuwaki said that her hands were shaking, “but I was fearing that something like that would happen.” By way of recovery, she was planning on knocking back some whisky and soda with friends at the dinner table.
On to the first playoff hole where Henseleit looked to be the better placed, only for Kuwaki to match her par with a deft up-and-down from the fairway after a wayward drive. At the second, again the 18th, Henseleit drove into the edge of the gorse on the right and hit a marshal in the process. She managed a grin on seeing that she could give the ball a thrash towards the green, but the one-putt four she needed never happened. Disappointing, yes, but what a lift she will give the European Solheim Cup side. You can only assume that captain Anna Nordqvist will be showing Henseleit’s 45-footer on the 18th to her team over and over again. It was that dramatic.
Almost all of the competitors were saying that they would sooner see their five majors spread over the season instead of being crammed into 13 weeks.
As for Noh, she may have missed out on the playoff but what a good name she made for herself as she hung around to sign autographs as Kuwaki and Henseleit prepared for the playoff.
It was how the players handled the bad times which had most to do with their scores over the week.
Charley Hull, who comes from a family of pranksters, could have done without the social-media backlash which came her way when she fooled her caddie into thinking he had won £100,000 on a scratch card. Yet still she thought more of the crowds than herself, signing autographs and posing for pictures for a seemingly endless queue of admirers. She finished in a share of sixth place alongside such as Lottie Woad and Haeran Ryu, the winner of the previous two majors.
Ryu, the halfway leader, was under attack from the 174-strong gang of Lytham bunkers, 10 of which swooped up her ball on Saturday and contributed to the 74 which followed her two opening 69s. Her eyes were rolling at the end of the experience, but still she stayed with her bemused brand of calm.
Miyu Yamashita, last year’s winner, had her own harrowing bunker experience. On the verge of making the halfway cut, she delivered a first bunker shot which hit the bunker’s face before bouncing back over her head. It landed in one of her footprints en route to an 8 and, for her, the end of her week. A sorry state of affairs for one so popular.
Shiho Kuwaki says, “Looking good gives me confidence.”
Richard Heathcote, R&A Via Getty Images
Holton Freeman, Lydia Ko’s coach, had this to say about the situation. “I’ve noticed that there’s more energy in the air at their first major of the season. The mental and physical requirements take their toll by the end of a season like this.”
On Saturday, Noh said of the women on tour, “We’re always so stressed, and whether the golf is going good or bad, it’s a lot with golf.” Her husband-to-be had told her she was lucky to be playing the game and lucky to be at this Open. She took heed and enjoyed it all the way until she failed to make the playoff.
Nelly Korda, who finished in a share of fourth place with Jeeno Thitikul, had talked of how she could get “pretty agitated” with the bounces at Lytham. “You hit a good shot, you get a bad bounce, and you end up in a pot bunker.” That said, she added that she was always likely to be more on edge because of all the high pressure moments that a run of majors can prompt.
Germany’s Sophia Popov, who won the 2020 Open at Royal Troon, was a credit to all and sundry. On Thursday morning, a loudspeaker sent out the message that spectators would be welcome to ask their own questions of Popov the moment she finished her round.
Bearing in mind she had just had an 85 in which she had been at sixes and sevens, you expected her to give a hurried apology and make her escape. Not so. She arrived at the relevant tent with a smile on her face and waited for the moment when someone would poke fun at her. (Can you imagine any of the men risking such a fate?)
As it turned out, all the questions were all about her two children, the latest of them only 10 weeks old, until one somewhat nervous-looking lady looked as if she might be about to ask the obvious.
To Popov’s relief, it was merely a kindly query about her favourite memory from Troon. Apparently, the woman and her entire family had been there to watch what was a totally unexpected triumph for one ranked 304th in the world.
Top: Shiho Kuwaki’s smile – as well as her game – lit up Royal Lytham.
WARREN LITTLE, GETTY IMAGES
