Jiyai Shin Caps Asian Grand Slam with Brutal British Win

Storm Queen: A tough lady demonstrates once again why she's called “Final-Round Queen”.

Jiyai Shin again earned her “Final Round Queen” nickname by finishing strong to win the British Women’s Open by nine strokes in the most brutal conditions ever encountered at any of the world’s four major golf tournaments.

By winning the year’s fourth major tournament Shin completed an Asian Grand Slam that began with Korea’s Sun Young Yoo at the Kraft Nabisco Championship, continued with Na Yeon Choi, another Korean, at the US Women’s Open, and China’s Shanshan Feng at the LPGA Championship.

The leaders at the Royal Liverpool Golf Club had to play 36 holes Sunday because Friday’s round had been cancelled due to whipping winds. Shin hung onto a three-stroke lead over Carrie Webb with a third-round 71, then blew past the rest of the struggling leaderboard with a final-round 73 completed minutes before the sun set over a day of relentless winds and drenching rain.

“Today was the worst conditions I think I’ve ever played,” Shin said. “But it was really fun, because every hole, how can I say, was a challenge.”

Fellow Korean Inbee Park finished second, nine strokes behind Shin. Paula Creamer finished a stroke behind Park with a 68 in the third — the day’s low round — followed by a an even-par 72 in the fourth, matching the final round’s low score. She had lost to Shin in last week’s 9-hole, 2-day Kingsmill playoff round that set a record for the longest in LPGA tour history.

With back-to-back wins at last week’s Kingsmill Championship and Sunday’s British Open, Shin, 24, is roaring back after left-wrist surgery that had kept her out of the LPGA Championship and the US Open.

“I was so missing it,” Shin said. “I was really feeling a little bit sad, a little bad. I work so hard. I guess that’s why I get this trophy.”

One of the most eagerly watched players at this year’s British Open was 15-year-old Korean New Zealander Lydia Ko who, in August, had become the youngest player ever to win an LPGA tour event. Ko finished with rounds of 76 and 78 on Sunday to end in a 17th-place tie along with Lexi Thompson, who had held the youngest LPGA tour winner title until Ko’s Canadian Open win in Vancouver. Ko was the British Open’s low amateur and was tied with Thompson, one of her playing partners.