Feng lifts Dubai title with record breaking score

10:24 04/12/2013
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  • Shanshan Feng completed her walk in the park yesterday. She never needed to go into overdrive as she cruised to a five-shot win in the Omega Dubai Ladies Masters.

    A three-under par 69 was her worst round in four days in the season-ending championship of the Ladies European Tour. She even felt a bit of pain midway through the round and hobbled a bit for a few holes. But such was the cushion after three days, she could have played on one leg and still won with plenty to spare.

    Thanks to her sustained brilliance, the curiosity about this year’s tournament was not whether she’d win, but by how much. Feng finally finished at 21-under par 267. That was three strokes better than the previous lowest tournament wining total of Annika Sorenstam (2006) and In Kyung-Kim (2009), and just one behind Thomas Bjorn’s 266 when he beat Tiger Woods in the 2001 Dubai Desert Classic.

    Just how good has Feng been lately? Since August 2011, she has won eight tournaments across the globe, and this was her sixth win of the year. That includes the LPGA Championship, one of the four Majors in ladies golf, and the Japan Open. For Feng, it’s been a case of when it rains, it pours.

    She qualified for the LPGA Tour immediately after turning pro following a sensational amateur career, but admitted she was getting frustrated after not winning anything for the first three-and-a-half years.

    “I went to America when I was 17 and I went to LPGA QSchool in the same year and I qualified. So, I was still playing in the junior tour and then suddenly I qualified. I knew it would take time but it took a little too long,” said Feng, who improved to No3 on the LET Order of Merit.

    “I kind of lost my confidence after three-and-a-half years. I had some chances before, but I just let it go. Then last year, at the Meiji Cup in Japan, I reached the 18th tee on the final day with a three-shot lead, and I said to myself, ‘If I don’t get a shank, I’m going to win this’. I did win by two and after that, I kind of got the wining feeling back.”

    Looks like she is making up for the lost time. There were no hiccups yesterday, and she made her intentions clear with an eagle on the third hole, which took her farther from the field.

    There was a bogey too, but that did not matter as two more birdies ensured she finished the tournament in record-breaking style.

    “I’m very happy because I had the lead for three days in a row and I didn’t want to give it away on the last day. I think I tried my best to handle the pressure and I won.

    “I didn’t look at the board until maybe the 18th green. So I didn’t know what was going on. I was just focusing on my game because this morning, I told myself that if I can shoot five-under, nobody can catch me. So I was just, you know, sticking to that plan. In the end, three-under was good enough.”

    Dewi Claire Schreefel of Netherlands, who shot a magnificent tournament-record 63 on Friday, added a 69 to finish runner-up at 272.

    Wales’ Becky Brewerton was tied for the third place with Germany’s Caroline Masson on 12-under-par 276 with the day’s lowest round of 65. Defending champion Alexis Thompson of the USA could do no better than a two-under par 70 on the final day and finished tied 10th at 279, while her compatriot Michelle Wie completed a difficult tournament with a 69 that elevated her to tied 19th place at six-under par 282.

    HRH Princess Haya Bint Al Hussein, wife of HH Sheikh Mohammed Bin Rashid Al Maktoum, Vice-President and Prime Minister of the UAE and Ruler of Dubai, and her daughter, Sheikha Al Jalila Bint Mohammed Bin Rashid Al Maktoum, gave away the prizes.

     

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