Championships - Ladies' British Open Amateur Championship 2011
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11.06.2011
Lauren Taylor produces quality performance to cap her week of weeks
FinalLauren Taylor, 16-year-old Woburn GC junior member, became the youngest ever winner of the Ladies' British Open Amateur championship when she beat 17-year-old Alexandra Bonetti from France by 6 and 5 in the 18-hole final over the sunny Royal Portrush links in Northern Ireland today. Previously the youngest winner accolade was held by May Hezlett who won on 12th May 1899 aged 17 years and 13 days. Her record lasted for 112 years until Lauren took her place in the record books on Saturday.
It capped an astonishing week for Rugby-based Lauren, an England girl international, who surprised even herself – and her caddie-dad Martin – by playing brilliantly all week and then producing an outstanding performance in the final to take the measure of Bonetti who won the British girls open championship on her last visit to Northern Ireland – at Royal Belfast last August.
Taylor produced six birdies in beating her French opponent, having come up with four birdies to get through at the 20th in the morning semi-final against defending champion Kelly Tidy (Royal Birkdale).
“I told my dad that we were both going to relax this week because I usually try too hard in the big championships and let myself down. I play my best golf when I am stress free and dad was more laid back than he has ever been as my caddie,” said Lauren.
“That helped me a lot. I was nervous a lot of times, especially in the closing stages against Kelly, but I tried not to let it affect my game. Yes, I didn’t think I could play so well day after day like that. Nobody was more surprised than me,” said Lauren whose earlier “victims” in arguably the strongest field ever to contest the Ladies Golf Union’s amateur flagship event included the World No 2 from New Zealand, Cecilia Cho.
Baylor University, Texas must have a good talent scout – they signed her up to enrol there in August 2012, and they did it BEFORE this week of weeks for the youngster. Lauren started the final in the same way she had ended her semi-final – with a birdie.
The youngster from Rugby confidently rolled home a 5ft putt from beyond the flag to win the first hole with a birdie 3.
Bonetti drove into a bunker at the second and took three shots to get clear the steep front wall of the trap. She ended up conceding the hole – two up after two for Taylor.
The third hole was halved in par 3s and then Bonetti’s troubles continued. She lost a ball at the fourth to go three down.
Bonetti bogeyed the fifth to lose that one too and a birdie 2 at the short sixth put the English girl five up.
The seventh was halved in birdie 4s, the eighth in par 4s and the ninth in birdie 4s, leaving Taylor five up at the turn. Lauren’s lead became six holes when she birdied the long 10th but she lost a hole for the first time in the match when she bogeyed the 11th to go back to five up.
Taylor got up and down in 2 with an exquisite pitch close to the cup from an awkward lie through the back of the 12th to salvage a half in 4s as she edged that bit closer to a memorable triumph.
Taylor ended the final in style by chipping into the hole from off the green for a birdie 3 – her sixth of the round – to win the British title by 6 and 5.
Taylor now gains full exemption into the 2011 Ricoh Women’s British Open played over the challenging Carnoustie Links next month.
Semi finals
France’s Alexandra Bonetti, 17, will play Lauren Taylor, 16-year-old Woburn player, in this afternoon’s 18-hole final of the Ladies’ British open amateur championship over the Royal Portrush links in Northern Ireland.
Taylor, 42nd of the 64 qualifiers for the match-play stages, beat the defending champion, Kelly Tidy (Royal Birkdale) with a birdie at the 20th, and Bonetti, the 52nd qualifier, beat Amy Boulden (Maesdu), the ninth seed, by 4 and 3 in this morning’s semi-finals.
Young Lauren is No 269 in the Women’s World Amateur Golf Rankings. Alexandra, whose 18th birthday is only a week or two away, is ranked No 60.
Last August, Bonetti won the British girls’ open championship at Royal Belfast – so she obviously reserves her best form for Northern Ireland venues.
Bonetti, who will enrol at Texas Christian University in August, is the first French player to reach the final of the Ladies Golf Union’s flagship amateur event since Marine Monnet who beat Rebecca Hudson in the 1999 final at Royal Birkdale.
Bonetti, who has finished second as an amateur in a Ladies European Tour event in Morocco, had five birdies over the 15 holes against Boulden who never recovered from losing the first, the third and the fourth. The French player was four up at the turn.
Earlier in what has been a momentous week for her, Taylor toppled the world No 2, Cecilia Cho (New Zealand) in the second round and the player Lauren beat this morning, Kelly Tidy, had KO’d the world No 1, Lydia Ko, also from New Zealand, in Round 2.
The early-morning rain had just about gone off as Alexandra Bonetti grabbed the initiative right away in the first semi-final by playing a fine approach shot and holing the 5ft putt for a birdie 3 to go one up.
It meant the French girl had birdied the first hole twice in succession because she birdied it – the 19th – to beat South Africa’s Lliska Verwey in Friday’s quarter-finals.
Bonetti built on her early lead with winning pars at the third and fourth to be three up on fifth tee.
Amy Boulden halted the tide by winning the short sixth where Bonetti made a rare slip on the greens by three-putting. But the French player was back in the birdie groove at the next two holes. Se won the long seventh with a 4 and the par-4 eighth with a 3 to double her lead to four holes.
Neither girl played the long ninth well for it to be halved in bogey 6s, leaving Bonetti four up at the turn.
Bonetti conceded the 10th to be brought back to three up but she notched her third birdie in five holes at the short 11th to regain a four-hole lead. The French player got her fifth birdie of the round at the par-4 12th to be five up with six to play.
The 13th was halved in bogey 5s but Boulden got one back with a par 3 at the 14th.
The 15th was halved in par 4s to give Bonetti a 4 and 3 winning margin. It would be more than hour before she knew whom she would play in the final.
In the second semi-final, Kelly Tidy was bunkered off the tee to lose the first hole and after halves at the next three holes, Taylor went two up with the first birdie of the match at the fifth.
The short sixth was halved in 3s before Tidy settled to get into her stride with winning birdie 4s at the seventh and ninth to be all square at the turn.
Tidy made it two birdies in a row with a 4 at the long 10th to take a one-hole lead for the first time but Taylor quickly regained equality with a winning par 3 at the 11th.
Tidy conceded the 12th for Taylor to go back into a one-hole lead in what was now a ding-dong struggle. The 13th was halved in bogey 5s, leaving young Taylor one up with five to play.
Lauren then birdied the short 14th to be two up for the first time since the sixth but she bogeyed the 15th to be pulled back to one, only to bounce back into a two-hole lead with a birdie 3 at the 16th.
Tidy was not letting her title go without a fight to the last. She kept alive her hopes by birdieing the long 17th to be one down on the 18th tee.
Both players bunkered their drives and Tidy’s third shot ended up in a deep pot bunker pin high at the side of the green while Taylor was 50yd short of flagstick in 3. Taylor used her putter and ran it up to about 3ft from the hole.
Tidy splashed out to about 7ft – and bravely holed the putt for a par 5.
That left Taylor needing to hole her four-footer for a half in 5, which would have given her a place in the final. But her putt slid past the side of the hole … and off they went down the 19th in a great match.
The first extra hole was halved in 4. Taylor birdied the long 20th after a well-struck wood second shot on to the green to take her place in the final against Bonetti.
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