‘Cinderella’ Shibuno gets fairytale ending
HINAKO SHIBUNO is not just a breath of fresh air, she’s a hurricaneforce blast of it.
With an astonishing display of composed, classy, clinical golf amid the carefree, cheery nonchalance you used to get in those Pro-Celebrity thingymebobs with Terry Wogan, Shibuno penned a quite delightful and memorable chapter in the history of the game as she won her maiden major at the first time of asking in the AIG Women’s British Open at Woburn.
Having watched her two shot overnight lead evaporate with a grisly four-putt early on, Shibuno showed wonderful resolve and eventually finished the job in style on the last with a bold putt which had so much pace on it, it would’ve ended up on the outside lane of the M1 had it not rattled the hole and dropped in.
That decisive birdie from some 15-feet gave the 20-year-old a closing four-under 68 for an 18-under 270 and a slender, one-stroke win over the brave, luckless Lizette Salas.
Known as the Smiling Cinderella, Shibuno’s conquest really was the stuff of fairytales and had gasping commentators, pundits and scribblers dishing out so many ropey references to glass slippers and going to the ball, we’ll all be getting a visit from the Cliché Overuse Police this morning.
On a thrilling afternoon of ebb and flow, Shibuno continued to play the game with a smile on her face despite the intolerable tension that major championship golf can generate.
“I feel like I’m going to vomit,” said Shibuno in suggesting anxiety that was not at all in evidence on the outside. “Contending at a tournament like this is nerve-racking but I was determined to enjoy it.”
Gleefully chomping sweeties, highfiving spectators and laughing down the camera lens as she bounded along the fairways is not a sight you often see as tournaments build to a nailnibbling, stomach-churning conclusion.
Nor do you often see a manager like hers, either. The endearinglybonkers Hiroshi Shigematsu – who was urging on her every shot while dressed in his kimono and novelty blue wig, waving a comedy duck – continues to set new standards in golfing eccentricity.
There was nothing absurd about Shibuno’s win, though. Well, apart from the jaw-dropping scale of it. She’s a winner in Japan but she had never played outside her native land before. In fact, she’d only been as far as Thailand and that wasn’t for golf.
What she produced over four days here at Woburn was extraordinary.
I feel like I’m going to vomit. Contending at a tournament like this is nerve-wracking