Nordqvist holds nerve to end four-year major wait
➤ Britain’s Georgia Hall has to settle for share of second place ➤ Koerstz Madsen drops back after bunker nightmare on 18th
Anna Nordqvist established her place among Europe’s greats and Carnoustie confirmed itself as a major venue with the unrivalled penchant for unexpected drama.
This was a Women’s Open Sunday that had it all – including seagulls stealing balls and protagonists shanking wildly on the 18th – and at the end of it, Britain could take solace in not only hosting such a gripping spectacular, but also coming so close to glory.
England’s Georgia Hall had to watch in something approaching competitive agony as Nordqvist two-putted the last green to win by one shot and so join Annika Sorenstam and Dame Laura Davies as the only female players from her continent to win three or more major titles.
That is rich company to keep for the 34-year-old, but in weeks like this – when her putter matches the blessed consistency of her ballstriking – it is easy to envisage Nordqvist making further inroads into the legacies of the two grand Madames of European golf.
Through all the usual Carnoustie madness, Nordqvist maintained her composure and even if it was tough for Hall, the 2018 champion, to see her own attempt fall short by a single stroke after her brilliant 67, there could be no doubt that Nordqvist deserved to add the Women’s 2021 Open title to her 2009 Women’s USPGA and 2017 Evian Championships. The latter, remarkably for such a high-quality performer, was her last piece of silverware of any kind.
“I’ve been waiting for this for a long time,” Nordqvist said. “There have been a lot of downs since then, which makes it even sweeter. My husband was brought up 20 minutes away from here, and that makes this even more special.” Her husband is Kevin Mcalpine, the current caddie to PGA Tour professional Martin Laird.
Nordqvist produced a final-round
69, for a 12-under total, which meant she collected £642,000 and so guaranteed herself a sixth appearance for Europe in next month’s Solheim Cup. Captain Catriona Matthew will
be just as delighted to have Nordqvist on her team in Toledo as she will to have Hall.
There were two eagles on the 25-year-old Briton’s scorecard as she came so near to replicating her triumph at Lytham three years ago.
“Even to have had a chance to win is very special at Carnoustie,” Hall said. “I’m very happy with the way I played. That’s all I could ask.”
Hall knows it could have been far worse – she could have been Nanna Koerstz Madsen.
The Dane arrived at the last hole in a tie with Nordqvist – and then the ghosts of Jean van de Velde came visiting.
The 26-year-old pushed her approach into a greenside bunker and then, from an admittedly awkward lie, played a catastrophic shank. The resulting double bogey
meant that she did not even finish second alongside Hall and American’s Lizette Salas and another Swede, Madelene Sagstrom, but instead dropped into a tie for fifth with Australian Minjee Lee.
Sagstrom was another plagued by those Angus demons. She bogeyed the 18th to miss out on a play-off and was later informed that, on the first hole, her ball had been moved back at least 15 yards by an overly-inquisitive seagull. “That’s a first for me,” she said.
Sagstrom played with Louise Duncan, the amateur
21-year-old from West Kilbride who birdied the first and, for stages on the front nine, looked sure to contend. Alas, Duncan fell away on the back nine and had to settle for a tie for 10th and top amateur honours. “This experience has been pretty surreal and, yeah, just dead exciting,” the Stirling University student said. Duncan plays for Great Britain and Ireland against the United States in the Curtis Cup this weekend, and she would be well advised to concentrate on that showdown in Conwy and not look at what she would have won here. If she had been a professional, she would now be more than £80,000 richer. Carnoustie: cruel until the end.