Domination--Jiyai Shin wins the Women's British Open

The golfer nicknamed the 'Final Round Queen' lived up to her nickname today. She won the last LPGA Major Championship of 2012 by 9 shots over Inbee Park. Just six days ago Shin defeated Paula Creamer in a nine-hole sudden-death playoff at the Kingsmill Championship. Shin shot a 71 to open the tournament, then followed it with a course record 64 to open up a five-shot lead going into the final day of play. Due to inclement weather on Friday, players who made the tournament cut had to play 36 holes today. No South Korean golfer other than Se Ri Pak has won more than one LPGA major. Another tidbit--no South Korean golfer other than Pak has won a double digit amount of LPGA tournaments. As I've written a few times, there has been a large number of South Korean golfers who started strongly on the LPGA Tour and then went into decline. Jiyai Shin, winner of the 2008 Women's British Open, came into today with one LPGA major championship triumph and nine LPGA wins respectively. So she was looking to join Pak.

Karrie Webb shot a third round 68 to pull within 3 shots of Shin with 18 holes to go. The weather turned horrible in the short period of time between Webb and Shin finishing their 3rd rounds and teeing it up for the 4th round. Rain and gusting strong winds. The final round was going to be a matter of survival. Shin makes a triple bogey on the opening round of her 4th round. Webb made double bogey but Shin's lead was down to two. That is as close as it came. Shin played the final 17 holes of her 4th round in 2 under par. Webb, Inbee Park, and Mika Miyazato all faded. The weather was bad for most of the day; in fact, there was a 15-minute stoppage as the winds were just gusting too strongly. It was just incredible how Shin played after the 1st hole. She never came close to another disaster. Her final-round 73 may have been just as good as her course-record 64 in the second round. Only two golfers, Creamer and Alexis Thompson, shot better rounds than Shin and they each came in with 72s. I think it's safe to say Shin is back. The last few weeks look to me look like her making another run at #1 in the world.