Teenage prodigy Engstrom is back to defend her title

JULIA ENGSTROM only turned 16 on March 27. But the latest teenage golf prodigy to roll off the Sweden’s finely-tuned production line has packed plenty into her fledgling career so far.

At the tender age of six she was inspired watching the 2007 Solheim Cup being fought out between the professional stars of Europe and the United States at her Halmstad home in Scandinavia.

And within seven years of taking up the sport she was a scratch golfer and embarking on his first professional tournament after receiving an invitation to play in the Helsingborg Open at Vasatorp Golf Club.

It was that grounding in the game which could perhaps account for Engstrom two years later becoming the youngest winner of the 113th Ladies’ British Open Amateur Championship at Dundonald Links.

Along with the prestigious title secured in Ayrshire, on the west coast of Scotland, came an invitation to play in the 2017 US Women’s Open, or so Engstrom thought.

But within a couple of weeks she was pegging it up alongside the stars of world golf at CordeValle, San Martin, California, after making a quick dash from her Sweden home.

“I had five days to prepare,” she said recalling on her second ever golfing trip to the USA.

Her first trip across the Atlantic came at the start of 2016 when the Swedish National Team held a training camp at Orange County National near Orlando, Florida.

And in the Sunshine State Engstrom revealed she is pondering taking the well-worn European golfing path from high school to college golf in the States.

And you can bet your bottom dollar there will be no shortage of invitations from the American universities should she choose that particular career path after graduating with honours in the 113th Ladies’ British Open Championships in 2016, surpassing the record of Lauren Taylor who was 16 when she was crowned champion at Royal Portrush in 2011.

Engstrom won a pulsating final against 19-year-old Dewi Weber from Groningen in the Netherlands at the 19th as lightning flickered, thunder crashed and it rained quite heavily.

She was three up after 11 holes and looking comfortable. But it all changed over the next few holes. Engstrom lost the 13th, 14th, 16th and 17th to be suddenly one down on the 18th tee.

Weber was now the favourite to take the title in the changed circumstances but she bogeyed the 18th and also the 19th for Engstrom to be the new champion.

Engstrom got off to a dream start in the final by winning the first with a par four, the fourth with a birdie two (20ft putt) and the long fifth, also with a birdie, holing a 25ft putt after taking three to get on.

That put her three up on the sixth tee and in command at that moment.

Weber got one back with a pitchand-putt par-four at the eighth, holing an eight foot putt while Engstorm, who had driven into a bunker and had to play out sideways, could do no better than a bogey five.

The ninth was halved in par fours, Engstrom’s approximate score for the front nine being two-under 34 while Weber matched the par of 36.

The young Swede’s birdie putt lipped out at the 10th which was halved in fours.

Engstrom regained a three-hole lead with a conceded birdie two at the short 11th where Weber bunkered her tee shot and took two shots to get out of the sand.

They halved the 12th in par fours as rain began to fall and thunder crashed in the dark clouds above them but lightning was, fortunately, 15 miles away.

Weber had not given up hope and she cut Engstrom’s lead to two holes by winning the 13th with a one-putt par four.

Both players were bunkered but Engstrom took two shots to get out of the trap and had a double bogey six... her worst hole for a day or two at least!

Weber’s tail was up and she cut her deficit to one hole with a par 5 at the 14th to Engstrom’s bogey six.

On now wet greens, the players were having difficulty in judging how hard to hit their putts.

Both hit the green at the short 15th with their tee shots but both threeputted to halve the hole in bogey fours.

Engstrom still one up with three holes to play but she had lost her sure touch of earlier in the final and she bogeyed the 16th to lose to a two-putt par four by Weber who thus squared the contest for the first time.

Engstrom took three to get down from rough just short of the green, missing a four-foot putt which would have salvaged a par four.

The Swede’s woes continued when she three-putted the 17th for a bogey five to go one down for the first time in the match.

But there was still another twist of fortune to come.

Weber was too bold with her approach to the 18th green, landed in a deep bunker through the back of it and took three to get down from there for a bogey six.

Engstrom with a two-putt par five squared the match.

As the players walked down the 19th – the first hole on the course there was a streak of lightning in the vicinity of the first green and it was raining heavily.

Engstrom, having regrouped, played the better approach shot, to within four feet of the flagstick.

Weber was about 20 feet past the hole and she misjudged her downhill putt, the ball running about five feet past.

The Dutch player could not hole the one back and with a bogey five, she conceded Engstrom her birdie putt, the hole, the match and the British title.

What a roller-coaster ride over the last seven holes!

Both finalists had beaten higher world ranked players in the morning semi-finals.

Engstrom KO’d world number four Maria Parra (Spain) 2&1 with threeunder-par figures while Weber beat USA Curtis Cup player Monica Vaughan, No.15 in the world rankings, by one hole.

And now thw Swedish teenager will be back in south Wales this summer to defend the title won in thrilling fashion for the defence of her crown at Pyle & Kenfig Golf Club.