WOMEN’S OPEN: Kim storms to 63, Webb in pursuit

BY BRENDAN JAMES at THE GRANGE GOLF CLUB

FEW championships are won without an element of luck. Whether it’s a putt rolling in the edge of the cup or a fortunate bounce away from imminent danger, luck plays a part in every trophy thrust skyward.

Korea’s SooBin Kim leads the ISPS Handa Women’s Australian Open by three strokes after an opening round course record 63 that required no luck at all. The 23-year-old was almost robotic with her irons, hitting 16 greens in regulation. The two greens she did miss left straightforward chip shots that she converted into successful par saves.

Soobin Kim was all smiles after her record round.
PHOTO: Morne de Klerk/Getty Images.

Kim, who grew up and learned the game in Canada, took an immediate liking to The Grange’s West course making birdie at her opening hole, the par-5 10th. A two-putt birdie followed at the next par-5, the 13th, which boosted Kim’s confidence even more as a further two birdies quickly followed. She rounded out her first nine holes with a fifth birdie to turn in 31 strokes on what is generally regarded as the more difficult of the nines.

It was quickly becoming a clinic with Kim making back-to-back birdies to open her back nine. At the 1st hole, she drained a putt 15 feet, while her second shot approach to the short par-4 2nd trickled up to within four feet of the cup, which she duly converted for birdie to move to seven under through 11 holes and the low 60s beckoning. Kim delivered with two more birdies, one at the par-5 5th and at the short par-4 7th where she rolled in an impressive left-to-right breaking putt from 12 feet.

LEADERBOARD  |  ROUND 2 TEE TIMES

Kim never looked like making a bogey during her round. Even when she faced a 10-foot par-save at the last hole it seemed inevitable she would make it given her putting performance over the preceding 17 holes. She did make it and the result was a 63 and the lowest 18 hole score of her short professional career.

Karrie Webb fires her approach into the 18th hole. Her opening 67 has her well poised.
PHOTO: Brendan James/Golf Australia magazine

“I wasn’t really thinking about bogeys today, I was just going with the flow,” said Kim of her flawless round. “I was hitting it pretty straight and on the line all the time so I was not really thinking about making bogeys.

“After a couple of holes on the front nine I made three birdies in a row and I think that was great momentum to carry on to shoot nine under today.

“I don’t think I was being greedy today, I was staying in the present and just hitting one shot at a time but I definitely thought there was a chance for me to hit a really low score.

“I don’t think anyone could predict that number but my coach (Brian Jung) and I were joking around saying let’s make 20 birdies this week and no bogeys, so I liked that idea. So let’s keep on rolling,” Kim laughed.

Kim’s putting complemented her immaculate iron play and not surprisingly she also heads the list of players who had the least amount of putts on day one with 26.

“I was just picking my line and rolling it and just letting the ball do the rest,” said Kim, who is ranked No.258 in the world.

Kim is playing her first LPGA event of 2016 after a poor finish to her rookie season when she missed the cut in six of her last nine events. As a result, she spent most of her enforced long off-season working hard on her game, which she knew would yield a low score at some stage once she got into tournament mode for the year.

“I didn’t quite finish as well as I thought last year so I couldn’t get into most of the Asian events, and I didn’t get into the first two events this year,” Kim said. “I knew I was going to get into a couple of events later on so I was preparing myself a lot.

“I felt really confident coming here. I’ve spent a lot of time working on my swing and my putting. Spending a lot of time with your coach gets your confidence built up. I would say I was pretty ready for it, so I’m not surprised.”

Kim, whose best finish on the LPGA was a tied 13th at the Portland Class last August, now finds herself in unfamiliar territory as she leads by three strokes from American Casey Grice and Germany’s Caroline Masson. A group of five players, including five-time champion Karrie Webb, are a further stroke back at five under.

While Kim needed no luck at all in the benign scoring conditions in the morning, Webb believes she got “pretty lucky” with her afternoon tee time.

Webb began brilliantly with birdies at her opening two holes. She gave one shot back at the par-4 3rd hole with what she later called “a soft bogey” before carding four more birdies – at the 6th, 7th, 13th and 17th holes – for her opening 67. The Queenslander made special mention of her birdie at the par-4 6^th as “the best birdie of my career.”

World No.1 Lydia Ko struck the ball well but couldn't get her putts to drop.
PHOTO: Brendan James/Golf Australia magazine

Having missed the fairway from the tee, Webb had two shot options in her bid to find the green.

“I didn't have much,” she smiled. “I had to hit a high hook or a low cut and those are both harder to do. I had to hit the cut against the breeze and in the end I felt that was the better option and it was one of those shots that you just pull off.”

Her approach sliced back towards the flag and finished 12 feet from the cup and she rolled in an unlikely birdie.

As Webb approached the tough closing quartet of holes, the winds started gusting up to 30km an hour.

“I think we got pretty lucky,” the Hall of Famer said. “The wind kicked up later today than it has, so we really only had to play in that gusty wind probably for the last four or five holes.

“So for an afternoon tee time we probably got pretty lucky, and I played really nicely today and made the most of it.”

When asked if she would have taken five under at the start of her round she quipped with a laugh: “Yeah, I would’ve stayed in my hotel.”

World No.1 Lydia Ko will be hoping for some luck of her own as she starts the second round seven shots adrift of Kim after she opened with a two under 70.

“Not many putts dropped today but a lot of them were hitting the edges,” Ko said after her round. “And I think I’m putting a good stroke on it and, at the end of the day, that’s all I can do.”