.

Ariya Jutanugarn becomes first Major 

Champion from Thailand

LADIES EUROPEAN TOUR NEWS RELEASE

From Bethan Cutler, LET Media Manager

Ariya Jutanugarn made history on the Marquess’ Course at Woburn by becoming the first player from Thailand – male or female – to capture a Major Championship at the Ricoh Women’s British Open.

With rounds of 65, 69, 66 and 72, the 20-year-old from Bangkok ended on a total of 16-under-par 272, three ahead of South Korean Mirim Lee and the 2014 champion Mo Martin from the United States.

Another former American champion, Stacy Lewis, finished in fourth position, with Scotland’s Catriona Matthew the leading Briton in a tie for fifth with South Korea’s Ha-Na Jang and Australian Karrie Webb.

The fair weather continued for the final round, which was played under sunny skies and attracted huge crowds of more than 50,000 for the championship.

Jutanugarn, who removed the driver from her bag for the week, began the final round with a two stroke lead over South Korean Mirim Lee and it looked set to become a procession after she increased her advantage to six strokes in as many holes. However, things became interesting down the stretch as her lead was cut to a stroke.

Jutanugarn was in cruise control until she dropped a shot after finding sand on the ninth, yet after a tidy front nine of 35, she was still four ahead of Martin, who hit the turn in 34.

Lee, who opened the championship with a record-equalling 62, made an unimpressive start with three bogeys over her first nine but hit back with three straight birdies from the 10^th, narrowing the gap to three strokes.

When Jutanugarn air mailed the 13^th with her second shot and her chip ran back across the green, another chip and two putts for a double bogey saw her lead was cut to one. Suddenly back into serious contention, Lee’s drive on the 16^th crashed into the trees, but both players escaped with pars.  Jutanugarn then made a cracking birdie putt of around 20 feet, which slid from left to right, at the difficult par-3 17^th.

A simple par on the last proved enough to secure a comfortable win and afterwards, Jutanugarn said: “I felt really stressed because I missed a lot of birdie putts today. I just wanted to make one. My goal was to win a Major, so I hope I can inspire some players in Thailand.”

A phenomenal natural talent, Jutanugarn showed huge promise from an early age. 

She first won on the Ladies European Tour as a 17-year-old rookie at the 2013 the Lalla Meryem Cup. At that stage, she looked ready to conquer the world, but a freak injury to her right shoulder when she stumbled off a tee box during the LPGA Championship meant that she couldn’t touch a club for eight months. When she returned, she wasn’t the same player and had to make some major adjustments to her swing.

Now in her fourth year as a pro, she learned from the experience of letting the ANA Inspiration title slip away in April and went on to capture three straight titles on the LPGA in May. 

With this win, worth £310,838, she will move up to third in the world rankings and next up is a trip to Rio for the women’s Olympic golf competition on August 17-20.

She will be joined in Rio by a number of other young guns, including Woburn’s Charley Hull, who tied for 17^th and Ireland’s Leona Maguire, who claimed the Smyth Salver as the leading amateur in a tie for 25^th place.

Incredibly, the average age of female major winners this year now sits at 21.5 years of age and three of the season’s first four major winners have been aged 20 or younger. The fifth and final Major of 2016 is the Evian Championship in September.

FINAL TOTALS
 par 288 (4x72)

1	Ariya Jutanugarn	65	69	66	72				272
T2	Mo Martin	68	68	69	70				275
T2	Mirim Lee	62	71	69	73				275
4	Stacy Lewis	67	70	70	70				277
T5	Ha Na Jang	68	67	73	71				279
T5	Karrie Webb	69	69	70	71				279
T5	Catriona Matthew	70	65	71	73				279
T8	So Yeon Ryu	69	70	71	70				280
T8	In Gee Chun	72	71	67	70				280
T8	Lexi Thompson	72	67	69	72				280
T11	Mi Hyang Lee	67	73	73	68				281
T11	Megan Khang	71	72	70	68				281
T11	Hee Kyung Bae	72	71	69	69				281
T14	Beth Allen	70	72	71	69				282
T14	Teresa Lu	69	71	71	71				282
T14	Beatriz Recari	69	72	69	72				282
T17	Charley Hull	69	70	75	69				283
T17	Azahara Munoz	68	71	73	71				283
T17	Haru Nomura	72	68	72	71				283
T17	Lee-Anne Pace	73	69	70	71				283
T17	Mi Jung Hur	74	70	68	71				283
T17	Sarah Jane Smith	68	72	70	73				283
T17	Nicole Broch Larsen	72	68	70	73				283
T17	Shanshan Feng	66	68	74	75				283
T25	Caroline Masson	76	69	72	67				284
T25	Lizette Salas	72	71	71	70				284
T25	Karine Icher	73	69	71	71				284
T25	Minjee Lee	71	73	69	71				284
T25	Jodi Ewart Shadoff	71	71	70	72				284
T25	Leona Maguire (am)	71	70	68	75				284
T31	Carlota Ciganda	74	70	71	70				285
T31	Alena Sharp	68	72	74	71				285
T31	Anna Nordqvist	72	71	71	71				285
T31	Alison Lee	71	70	72	72				285
T31	Yani Tseng	69	72	72	72				285
T31	Candie Kung	72	69	70	74				285
T37	Gaby Lopez	72	69	73	72				286
T37	Camilla Lennarth	70	70	70	76				286
T39	Chella Choi	75	66	72	74				287
T39	Emily Kristine Pedersen	73	69	71	74				287
T39	Lydia Ko	74	70	69	74				287
T42	Brittany Lincicome	69	76	72	71				288
T42	Kelly Shon	73	67	76	72				288
T42	Jennifer Song	70	72	71	75				288
T42	Moriya Jutanugarn	69	76	68	75				288
T46	Ashleigh Simon	71	68	77	73				289
T46	Lina Boqvist	74	71	71	73				289
T46	Sandra Gal	70	75	70	74				289
T49	Sung Hyun Park	72	70	77	71				290
T49	Christina Kim	74	71	73	72				290
T49	Gerina Piller	73	72	72	73				290
T49	Bronte Law (am)	70	70	76	74				290
T49	Eun-Hee Ji	74	70	72	74				290
T49	Sei Young Kim	69	69	77	75				290
T49	Brooke M Henderson	71	72	72	75				290
T49	In-Kyung Kim	69	73	71	77				290
T57	Brittany Altomare	71	73	75	72				291
T57	Mika Miyazato	69	71	74	77				291
T59	Marina Alex	71	71	75	75				292
T59	Brittany Lang	72	71	74	75				292
T59	Jiyai Shin	72	71	74	75				292
T59	Yukari Nishiyama	73	69	73	77				292
T59	Angela Stanford	71	70	71	80				292
T64	Melissa Reid	72	70	77	74				293
T64	Maria McBride	72	73	72	76				293
T64	Tiffany Joh	71	71	74	77				293
T64	Ai Suzuki	72	73	71	77				293
68	Maude-Aimee Leblanc	71	71	73	79				294
T69	Su-Hyun Oh	73	72	76	74				295
T69	Chloe Leurquin	74	71	74	76				295
71	Cristie Kerr	72	73	72	79				296
72	Maria Parra (am)	69	74	78	76				297
73	Marta Sanz Barrio	72	73	74	82				301
74	Vicky Hurst	70	74	78	81				303