Championships - Ladies' British Open Amateur Championship 2008
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2008 Ladies British Open Amateur Champion - Anna Nordqvist
15.06.2008
Third time lucky for Anna
4.00pmAnna Nordqvist is the new Ladies British open amateur champion. Having lost the past two finals, the 21-year-old Swedish player from Eskilstuna and a student at Arizona State University made no mistake this time round.
She beat 19-year-old compatriot Caroline Hedwall by 3 and 2, in a quality final which was all over inside three hours – very good golf at the gallop!
The match provided a bonanza of birdies, 10 in all, which is what you would expect from two so highly-rated players. Nordqvist has +4 of a handicap while Hedwall, who beat her twin sister Jacqueline in the morning semi-finals, has a rating of +5.4.
Nordqvist killed off home hopes of a first British title-winner since Rebecca Hudson in2 002 when she beat Roseanne Niven from Crieff by 2 and 1 in the penultimate round. It is Anna’s second “British” title. She won the girls’ championship at West Hill, Sussex in 2005.
With both players pulling their clubs and striding out at a fast pace, the good-sized gallery were hard pushed to keep up.
The fast pace of play did not affect the standard of scoring – anything but. The first hole was halved in birdie 3s, Nordqvist knocking her approach to within a foot of the hole. Hedwall sportingly conceded the putt, confident that she was going to hole her own five-footer for a half … and she did.
Nordqvist made it three birdies in a row when she holed a 6ft putt to win the second and then took the long third with a birdie 4 to go two up.
Hedwall stopped the slide with a birdie 2 at the short fourth and the next four holes were halved, the eighth in birdie 4s in a quality final played at an old fashioned brisk pace.
There was an out-of-character blip at the long ninth which was halved in bogey 6s, but Nordqvist, one up, had still reached the turn in three-under-par 34, thanks to four birdies. Hedwall, with a bag of three birdies, was an approximate two under par 35 for the first nine. Nordqvist was off on the birdie trail again with a 3 at the 10th to go two up but Hedwall was back in contention again when she birdied the 12th to get back to one down.
But Nordqvist had even more birdies up her sleeve. She produced her sixth birdie to win the 13th and go two up with five to play.
After the 14th and 15th were halved, Nordqvist wrapped up the title at the 16th with a par 4 for a 3 and 2 win. Anna was five under par for the holes played. Caroline was one under the card.
A bonus prize for Nordqvist is that she gains exemption from pre-qualifying for the Ricoh British Women's Open at Sunningdale at the end of July. Anna is now fully exempt for the 2008 Ricoh Women’s British Open at Sunningdale should she wish to enter.
12.00pm
It will be an All Swedish final at North Berwick.
Top seed Caroline Hedwall defeated her sister 4 & 3 this morning to seal her place in the final.
Former British Girls' Champion, Anna Norqvist took the other spot with a 2 & 1 victory, resisting the spirited challenge of Crieff's Roseanne Niven.
Anna will be hoping to make it "third time lucky" having been the beaten finalist in this Championship for the past two years.
Top seed Caroline Hedwall from Sweden will play compatriot Anna Nordqvist, the seventh qualifier for the match-play stages, in this afternoon's 18-hole final of the Ladies British open amateur championship at North Berwick.
Caroline beat 19-year-old twin sister Jacqueline, the 26th qualifier, by 4 and 3 with one-over-par figures. Seventh seed Anna beat 14th qualifier Roseanne Niven (Crieff) by 2 and 1. It will be the first all-Swedish final in the history of the championship first played in 1893.
The last Swedish player to take the title was Louise Stahle in 2004 and 2005. Whoever wins the final it will be the sixth year in a row the title has been won by a Continental player and the third consecutive final to feature two players from the Continent.
The 6ft 1in Nordqvist, who had her 21st birthday on June 10 and was beaten in the 2006 and 2007 finals, becomes the fifth player to appear in three successive finals. She follows in the footsteps of Lady Margaret Scott, who won the first three championships in 1893-94-95; Cecil Leitch, who won in 1914 and after the championship resumed following a hiatus for the World War I years, won again in 1920 and 1921; Pam Barton, who lost the 1934 and 1935 finals before winning in 1936, and Mickey Walker who won in 1971 and 1972 before losing the 1973 final.
The meeting of the Hedwalls was an historic occasion ... no twins had ever contested a British semi-final previously. Jacqueline led twice by one hole on the outward half, winning the first and the sixth with pars but Caroline won the third with a birdie 4 m the seventh with a par 4 and the eighth with a par 5 to be one up for the first time on the ninth tee.
Jacqueline had her third bogey in five holes to lose the 11th and go two down. She also bogeyed the 13tyh and 15th to lose both holes and the match by 4 and 3. Caroline was approximately one over par to her sister's five over. They completed the 15 holes in just under three hours.
Nordqvist reached the turn in one-under-par 36 to be two up. She won the first with a conceded birdie and regained a one-hole lead with a birdie 4 at the third after the Scot had won back the second with a par 4.
Niven was conceded a birdie 3 to win the fifth and be back on level terms but Nordqvist quickly got back in the lead with a par at the sixth.
Nordqvist birdied the ninth to be out in 36 and two up. Niven birdied the short 10th to cut her deficit to one but her opponent was always quick to reply and she did it again with a birdie 4 at the 11th to regain a two-hole lead.
The Swede's advantage extended to three holes with a bogey 5 at the 13th but Roseanne was not finished yet. She chipped in for a birdie 2 at the 15th and holed a 4ft second putt to win the 16th.
One up on the 17th tee, Nordqvist sank a birdie putt to win that hole and the match by 2 and 1. The tie had lasted under 3 1/2 hours. Nordqvist was approximately one under par, Niven two over.
The final begins at 1pm and spectators are welcome. Admission is free.
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