Review of the Ricoh Women’s British Open 2018

The final day of the Ricoh Women’s British Open 2018 at Royal Lytham & St. Annes Golf Club in Lancashire saw an exciting duel between an outstanding Thai golfer and a Brit who we should be hearing a lot more from in the next few years. Watching this for The Golf Business was women’s golf expert Sarah Forrest

A quick re-cap from day three: 65 players made the cut from a playing field of 144.

With continued dominance for the Americans (16) and 12 from South Korea, the leaders, Pornanong Phatlum, on 13 under, and Georgia Hall, 12 under, are, surprisingly, from Thailand and England respectively. Behind the leaders are So Yeon Ryu, on 11 under, and Sung Hyun Park, on 10 under, both from South Korea.

Day four: Despite the little media coverage that gets out to the British public about the Women’s British Open, those from England openly rally around Georgia Hall, with tweets aplenty piling on the pressure for a win for a Brit. I don’t know if it helps her or not, but at least we don’t chant ‘it’s coming home’!

However, Pornanong Phatlum does sing to calm her nerves – Thai songs in her head to get herself ‘in the zone’. It’s clearly working for her as she looks as cool as a cucumber.

She is a 28-year-old from Bangkok, slight in build but punching a powerful shot. She is on fire with a shot over the green on the first hole, leaving the green open for Georgia Hall to walk straight through; and she did by answering it with good tee shot and a steady birdie on the par three opening hole. Hall is a 22-year-old from Bournemouth who took the first hole in her stride, and with a wry smile she shares the lead as Phatlum secures an easy par.

The home crowd is delighted but is also very polite to the visiting Thai.

The lead goes back and forth; all square then gaining one back as the rest of the field gently slips away to the point of no return, with the exception of a late challenger in So Yeon Ryu, who maked a surge to gain a place in any potential play-offs with a series of good holes to bring her 14 under and to within touching distance of the leading two. However, the two leading simply feed off each other and flicked off any challenges outside their bubble.

All focus turns to the leading pair on a hot balmy sunny Sunday afternoon, with barely a breath of fresh air and the odd cotton wool cloud dotting the blue sky as the sun shone upon this beautiful links course. Nip and tuck the whole way, birdies lipping out, sand saves and the lead switching between Hall and Phatlum with the crowd feeling every shot, demonstrated with respectful responses of applause, hoops and cheers for good golf.

It all starts to hot up on the 14th as Hall makes a sand save to remain level, giving her renewed confidence as she cracks a drive down the 15th and is on the green for two with an eagle putt lying ahead to give her the outright lead. Maybe confidence wanes at this point as the eagle putt lips out, but an easy birdie is made. Phatlum, ranked 97 in the world, is on the left for the second shot, a great chip also secures her a good birdie. These two are neck and neck, in every respect – golf, ability and poise.

Draining a 20 foot putt, Hall, ranked 39 in the world, takes the lead once again on the 16th whist confirmation comes through that this is a two horse race.

They take on the 17th and Hall puts her tee shot about 25 feet right of the fairway and Phatlum is in the bunker. Whilst Hall’s ball comes to rest in no apparent danger, despite being in the rough, Phatlum is in the deep groove of the raked bunker. Hall takes a blind shot and lands on the green in two to 15 feet of the flag. Phatlum takes too much club as she tries to secure a good recovery shot, instead pulling it into the far left rough and into trouble. Nonetheless a great shot lands her on the green in three, but with three putts to follow against Hall’s steady par, Hall has a three shot lead over Phatlum going into the final hole.

Steady, and not aggressive, play for a bogey finish leaves Hall as the outright winner, shooting 17 under for the four rounds as Phatlum’s par is not enough.

Hall wins a purse of $490,000 but more importantly she is only the fourth English woman to win a major, following in the footsteps of Laura Davies, Karen Stupples and Alison Nicholas.

Hall was born in the same week that Nick Faldo won the Masters in 1996 – her parents named her Georgia.

Phatlum sings her way to the bank with $300,388. Third place So Yeon Ryu earns $217,910.

A great display of golf by the women at the Ricoh Women’s British Open.

If you want to contact Sarah, email sarah@golfgurugroup.com or follow her on Instagram at sarah.forrest360golf