Asia’s annexation of the female game will never have seemed so complete if Jiyai Shin converts a five-shot lead into a second Ricoh Women’s British Open title at Hoylake on Sunday.
The continent is but 36 holes away from a clean sweep of the 2012 majors. Shin is a formidable front-runner as she proved at Sunningdale four years ago. Her Korean compatriots Sun Young Yoo and Na Yeon Choi captured the Kraft Nabisco and US Women’s Open titles earlier in the year, while China’s Shanshan Feng won the LPGA Championship.
There are two rounds still to play on a marathon Sunday after Friday’s play was cancelled due to 60mph winds. It may well turn into a race to beat the dark. The organisers have done as much as they dare in trying avoid a Monday finish by reducing the cut from 65 plus ties to 50 plus ties. In other words, Shin has fewer rivals than she would normally have.
Not that Shin appeared bothered by who she was up against in a stunning eight-under 64, the best score of the week by four. Granted, the 24 year-old did enjoy the best of the conditions as the sun appeared and the gusts died on the Wirral.
But she grasped the opportunity ruthlessly enough to leave the rest flapping. Shin chipped in for an eagle on her first hole, birdied the next three, turning in a spectacular six-under-par 31, before adding two more birdies to advance to nine-under.
After two months off following wrist surgery Shin returned to the winning enclosure last Monday, beating American Paula Creamer in a nine-hole play-off in Virginia. Nobody is threatening to take her to extra holes this time. Yani Tseng’s hopes of a third British Open in a row nosedived when she double-bogeyed the 17th and even with a birdie at the last for a 72 she is nine behind.
article source: http://www.telegraph.co.uk/sport/golf/womensgolf/9545629/Jiyai-Shin-hotfoots-into-a-big-British-Open-lead-to-put-Asia-on-the-verge-of-world-domination.html
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