Stacey Keating carded an even par final round 72 to finish tied for sixth, five shots behind winner, Queenslander Karrie Webb, in the Australian Ladies Masters at Royal Pines.
SOUTH-west golf export Stacey Keating claimed her best finish in a major Australian tournament yesterday on the Gold Coast.
Keating carded an even par final round 72 to finish tied for sixth, five shots behind winner, Queenslander Karrie Webb, in the Australian Ladies Masters at Royal Pines.
The former Cressy golfer, who grew up playing at Lismore and other south-west courses, birdied the par-five last hole to cap an up-and-down round. After making bogey on the first, she bounced with an eagle on the par-five third but bogeys on the fourth, 11th and 14th holes ended her shot at victory.
For 38-year-old Webb, the result equalled the great Sam Snead’s record of eight wins at a single tournament, in his case the Greater Greensboro Open between 1930 and 1965.
As expected, Webb (70-66-67) wore down overnight leaders, teenagers Su-Hyun Oh and Thailand’s Ariya Jutanugarn, with a final round five-under 67 to take the 54-hole event by two shots. The tournament took a dramatic turn at the 501-metre par five 12th hole where the youngsters, who started the day at ten under with a two-stroke lead, cracked in yesterday’s heat.
They were tied in the lead on 11-under hitting off the tee but Oh walked off the green after a three-putt double bogey seven and Jutanugarn a bogey six.
It was a three-shot swing that allowed Webb, who’d already birdied the hole, to join them at the top of the leaderboard. From then on it was all Webb. with AAP
