San Diego Union-Tribune (Sunday)
SHIBUNO CLINGS TO LEAD AT MUDDY WOMEN’S OPEN
No spectators. Two golf courses in play for the opening rounds. A major championship two weeks before Christmas. Nothing about this U.S. Women’s Open felt normal until Saturday.
That’s when it became a grind that for so many years has defined this biggest event in women’s golf. The long, soft and mud-splattered Champions Golf Club in Houston put a premium on par.
Hinako Shibuno did her best to hang on.
The 22-year-old from Japan watched a four-shot lead shrink to a single shot when her par putt on the final hole slid by the cup for a 3-over 74. She still had the lead on a day so tough only two of 66 players broke par.
“All the holes seemed to be very difficult for me,” she said.
It was like that for just about everybody.
Amy Olson, who nearly holed out from the 17th fairway and finished strong for a 71 that felt much lower, lost track of how often she had mud on her golf ball.
Stacy Lewis saw her chances of winning on her home course slip away with consecutive three-putts, the second one for a triple bogey on the 14th hole.
Next up might be the toughest day yet.
Rain that soaked the course Friday night was expected throughout today, and the USGA moved up the starting times as early as possible with hopes of crowning a champion.
Shibuno, going for her second major in as many years, was at 4-under 209 and headed for the practice range to sort out her driver, staying there until the fading sun cast long shadows.
“I myself was very nervous,” she said. When asked why a major champion with an endless smile and seemingly not a care in the world would be so nervous, Shibuno replied, “Because I was on top of everybody, that’s why.”
And she still is. Just barely.
Shibuno is trying to become only the third player to make majors their first two LPGA Tour titles. The others were In Gee Chun — 2015 U.S. Women’s Open and 2016 Evian Championship — and Se Ri Pak, who won the LPGA Championship and U.S. Women’s Open in 1998.
Shibuno won the Women’s British Open last year at Woburn, and declined to take up LPGA membership because she didn’t think she was ready. Now her only way to join the LPGA is to win today, and it doesn’t figure to be easy. Jin Young Ko, the No. 1 player in the world and a two-time major champion, made 16 pars in her round of 71 and that was enough to at least give her a chance. She was at 1-over 214 with Women’s PGA champion Sei Young Kim (73).
Elsewhere
Matt Kuchar and Harris English took a five-stroke lead Saturday in the PGA’S QBE Shootout in Naples, Fla., opening and closing with long birdie runs for an 11-under 61 in modified alternate-shot play.
Patrick Reed rolled in an 8-foot birdie putt at the last hole to move into a three-way tie for the thirdround lead at the World Tour Championship in Dubai, United Arab Emirates on Saturday, keeping him on track to become the first American to finish a season as the European Tour’s No. 1 player.