Ricoh Women's British Open Preview, Pairings, and Much More

[tonyj5]

This week the LPGA travels to England for the playing of the Ricoh Women's British Open. I.K. Kim will be trying to defend the title she won last year in Fife, Scotland. I.K.'s final round 71 was good enough to top a charging Jodi Ewart Shadoff (she shot a final round 64) by two strokes.

Here is my preview and lots more:

http://www.tonyslpgareport.com/

[sjmcampbell]

Brittany Marchand qualified yesterday (69, -3). Alena failed to qualify (70, -2) as did Maude-Aimee (80, +8)

https://ricohwomensbritishopen.com/r...al-qualifying/

There was a total of 17 places up for grabs at the Final Qualifier and at the end of the day former US Women’s Open champion Paula Creamer was one of twelve players who carded a three-under par 69 and then had to go out again to battle for the seven spots in the field at Royal Lytham and St Annes.

12 months ago Creamer successfully came through the Qualifier at the Castle course in St Andrews but this time she went all the way to the fourth extra hole before losing out to Canada’s Brittany Marchand after hitting her tee shot into a greenside bunker and failing to get up and down. The American will be the first Alternate for this year’s Championship.

http://www.lpga.com/news/2018-tiffan...r-british-open

Creamer made par on the first playoff hole and was then competing against seven others for six spots. She was one of three players that made bogey on the second playoff hole while five made par to earn a spot. So, she had to go to a third playoff hole with only one spot left. Brittany Marchand drained a 15-foot birdie putt and then Creamer responded with a 14-footer to extend to a fourth playoff hole. Michele Thompson was eliminated with a par. On the fourth playoff hole, a par three, Creamer was first to play and hit her tee shot into the greenside bunker and made bogey while Marchand hit a beauty to 10-feet and made par to earn the final spot.

https://twitter.com/RICOHWomensBrit/...14581818175489

@RICOHWomensBrit: IT'S ALL OVER! Brittany has calmly putted to a foot from the cup and she is now qualified for the #RWBO! Paula Creamer will get the 1st reserve spot!

https://www.golfchannel.com/article/golf-central-blog/creamer-first-alternate-womens-brtitish-qualifying/

Swedish amateur Linn Grant, 19, shot a 10-under-[ar 62 to top all the qualifiers. She won the Ladies British Amateur Stroke Play Championship a year ago and was in early contention at the U.S. Women’s Open in June in her first start in a major. She was tied for fourth through 36 holes and ended up tying for 57th.

Here are the 18-hole scores of the other 16 qualifiers:

66 -Cloe Frankish.

67 – Rachael Goodall.

68 – Tonje Daffinrud, Laetitia Beck, Inci Mehmet, Robynn Ree, Ursula Wikstrom, Frida Kinhult (amateur), Haeji Kang.

69 –Pannarat Thanapolboonyaras, Tiffany Joh, Hollie Muse (amateur), Lydia Hall, Sideri Vanova, Ludovica Farina (amateur) and Brittany Marchand

Qualifying results: https://ricohwomensbritishopen.com/r...18&season=2018

[tonyj5]

The first round pairings have now been posted:

http://www.tonyslpgareport.com/2018/07/ricoh-womens-british-open-preview.html

[sjmcampbell]

The first round pairings have now been posted:

Brooke: 7:47am with Ayako Uehara and Jodi Ewart Shadoff
Brittany: 10:15am with Caroline Inglis and Hee Young Park

I think 7:47am UK time would be 2:47am in Ontario, 10:15am UK time being 5:15am with TV coverage starting at 6am Ontario time.

Friday:
Brittany: 2:55pm (9:55am)
Brooke: 12:27pm (7:27am)

[Johnrw]

630 first tee time. Yikes

[sjmcampbell]

630 first tee time. Yikes

Everyone is starting from the 1st tee. None of the usual 10th tee stuff.

[Johnrw]

Everyone is starting from the 1st tee. None of the usual 10th tee stuff.

i know but that’s early.

[sjmcampbell]

i know but that’s early.

They are at 53.7 degrees latitude in Lancashire with sunrise at 5:30am (almost 40 minutes earlier than Toronto sunrise).

But, yes, thats early - and even earlier here.

[sjmcampbell]

Michelle Wie has WD.
https://golfweek.com/2018/08/02/mich...h-hand-injury/

Wie withdrew from the Ricoh Women’s British Open on Thursday after 12 holes with a lingering right hand injury. She was 7 over.

The 28-year-old took to Instagram to issue a statement.

“I have been doing everything humanly possible (besides giving it proper rest) this past couple of weeks to get my hand healthy enough to play this event,” wrote Wie, “but unfortunately, it wasn’t enough. I gave it my all today but I just couldn’t handle the pain any longer.”

Brooke is in T11 (-3) with a 69 today. Brittany is T84 (+2) with a 74. The cut line (22 players who are T61) is at +1.

[tonyj5]

Here are the leaders after round 1:

1 Minjee Lee -7
2 Mamiko Higa -6
3 Georgia Hall -5
3 Sung Hyun Park -5
3 Teresa Lu -5
3 Mi Hyang Lee -5
3 Pornanong Phatlum -5

For more scores:

http://www.tonyslpgareport.com/2018/07/ricoh-womens-british-open-preview.html

[sjmcampbell]

Sandra Post talks to Ian Hutchinson about links golf and the Womens British Open (from Wednesday)
http://www.golfnewsnow.ca/voices/voi...-british-open/
(audio, 7:20)

Plus Brooke interview: August 2, 2018

Brooke Henderson

Fife, Scotland

Q. What a great opening day today. Not just a good day, but good back nine, 4-under par. What did you learn after your first nine holes here?
BROOKE HENDERSON: Yeah. The first holes were a little shaky and I got into some of the pot bunkers and found that they were very difficult to get out of. But after that I kind of settled down a little bit. The back nine was great. I gave myself a lot of birdie opportunities and was able to make a lot of them.

Q. Are the bunkers really the key for this golf course?
BROOKE HENDERSON: Yeah, absolutely. You really need to avoid them. And early, like I said, I got into them and that was trouble, but after that, you know, I missed them and that's when I started being able to hit fairways and greens pretty regularly.

Q. This will be your fourth appearance in the Women's British Open. You've made the cut each time, but never finished inside the top 40. What do you think it is today that worked better than it has been in the past?
BROOKE HENDERSON: You know, I think just every time you're over here you learn more and just the experiences that you really need. It's very different than what I grew up playing on. But I think today the wind conditions were very low, and we didn't see a lot of the weather, a little bit of rain but nothing too much, so hopefully I can just adjust over the weekend.

Q. Winner on tour already this season, confident, good playing today. Well done.
BROOKE HENDERSON: Thank you.

Q. What were the highlights today? What was really working for you?
BROOKE HENDERSON: Definitely the par-5s were key for me today. I did miss a short birdie putt on 6, but that's kind of where I got my confidence back. I was able to play that par-5 and have only -- I think it was only a three-footer. I did miss it, but then I went onto birdie the next par-5, no. 7. No. 11 I birdied and No. 15 I birdied as well. So those ones were really key, and just kind of settled me down and got me to relax a little bit.

Q. Cara mentioned your British Open record. Your overall major championship record is like really strong and then the British is kind of probably not what you want it. Has that been something that you've thought about and maybe wanted to address?
BROOKE HENDERSON: Yeah, for sure. I don't know. Just I get to the weekend and I kind of blow up a little bit over here. So hopefully this year I can just learn from that. But I think playing in New Zealand last year and winning there it was very links style and it was crazy conditions, so I think that was really a good learning curve for me, and I think it gave me a lot of confidence moving into links courses that if something goes wrong like it kind of did this morning, I just kind of relaxed and was able to come back from that.

FastScripts Transcript by ASAP Sports

[Johnrw]

I just watched Brooke one hop one into the hole on 9 for an ace.

[Ignatius Reilly]

Brooke with a sweet Ace on the 9th this morning!!!

She's had a very hot and cold round so far - birdied the 1st, then kinda wild off the tee giving some tough approach shots. Then a tidy bird on 8 followed by the ace on 9 and.... she's right back up the leaderboard to T7. Maybe this will get her round going.

I've never seen a round with so many one-handed follow-throughs.

[Bern]

It's a little sad that all she won for the ace was a case of wine.

[sjmcampbell]

Brooke finished the day with a 70 and is sitting in T8 (-5), five back of the leader.
Post-round interview: https://www.tsn.ca/video/henderson-h...eekend~1454560 (video, 1:29)

Brittany finished with a 73 and is T78 (+3) and unfortunately will not be playing the weekend.