GOLD CANYON, ARIZONA | Suzann Pettersen had to be loving this. The upcoming European Solheim Cup captain saw two players from England and a Frenchwoman play some of the best golf of the year at Superstition Mountain Golf and Country Club.
Celine Boutier, Georgia Hall and Charley Hull, all of whom likely will be stalwarts of Pettersen’s 2023 and 2024 European teams, put on a show at the LPGA Drive On Championship with iron shots that cut through the Arizona wind and clutch putts down the stretch that left fans, many of whom were members at Superstition Mountain, shaking their heads in wonder.
Hall went out first, starting the final round tied for seventh, three off the lead held by Boutier. After a yawner of a 35 on the front nine, Hall found that everything in her game clicked on the back. She made two birdies and an eagle in the first four holes of the inward half, the latter coming with a 21-foot putt at perfect speed. Then Hall birdied the par-4 15th to claw her way into a tie for the lead with Boutier and Ayaka Furue.
On the par-5 18th, after a blistered drive, Hall hit 6-iron on the front-right corner of the green, leaving her a tricky 70-footer for eagle. A three-putt would have been easy, almost expected. Instead, Hall rolled her eagle effort to 18 inches and tapped in for birdie to shoot 65 and get to 20-under par for the week.
Hull, who ripped her way around the course all week, edged within a shot of the lead with a birdie at the 11th. But the putter chilled after that. She bogeyed the difficult par-4 16th and then hit a good putt on 17 that didn’t fall. Her eagle chip on 18 went all the way around the hole and hung on the edge without falling. With a chuckle at her late-round fortune, Hull tapped in for 16-under par and a T7 finish.
That left Boutier, who hit it laser-pointer straight almost all week. After a birdie at 11, and a 30-footer that fell for birdie at 13, the 29-year-old Parisian came to the 18th needing birdie to force a playoff with her Solheim Cup partner with whom she went undefeated at Gleneagles, Scotland, and Inverness Club in Ohio. It didn’t come easy, but Boutier rolled in an 8-footer to force extra holes as if it were a tap-in.
Europeans had to be thrilled. Regardless of the outcome, this opening full-field event of the 2023 season had fans of the blue and gold nudging one another over their frothy pints. Players from England, France, Norway, Denmark, Sweden, Northern Ireland and Ireland finished in the top 25. And those did not include the hottest potential Solheim rookies in a generation: Swedes Maja Stark and Lynn Grant.
After heading back to the 18th for sudden death – the sun setting and the temperatures plummeting – Boutier won with a strategic birdie, laying up with an iron, hitting a deft chip, and making a 4-footer for her third career victory after Hall missed an 18-footer for birdie.
With her third victory, Boutier became the winningest Frenchwoman in LPGA Tour history. But if you’re European, there were no losers. Everyone on the continent won.
Steve Eubanks