Japan’s Shiho Kuwaki claimed her first major title by defeating Germany’s Esther Henseleit in a play-off to win the Women’s Open at Royal Lytham on Sunday.<\/p>\n
Kuwaki and Henseleit finished regulation play tied at five under par after the German holed a lengthy birdie putt on the 18th to force extra holes.<\/p>\n
American Yealimi Noh, who had held the overnight lead and started the day strongly, finished third at four under.<\/p>\n
Kuwaki sealed victory on the second play-off hole, after Henseleit missed her par attempt and tapped in for bogey, becoming the second Japanese champion of the tournament in succession, after Miyu Yamashita.<\/p>\n
After beginning the day among the chasing pack, Kuwaki steadily climbed into contention as Noh began to feel the pressure. She moved into a share of the lead with a birdie at the 13th and stayed patient over the closing stretch before posting the clubhouse target at five under.<\/p>\n
Noh looked set to control the final round but a pair of bogeys at the seventh and eighth cut her advantage. She briefly recovered, regaining a share of the lead with a birdie at the par-four 13th, before another dropped shot at the 14th left her trailing Kuwaki by one.<\/p>\n
Henseleit also produced a strong back-nine charge. After slipping back with bogeys at the eighth and ninth, she birdied the 11th, 12th and 15th to draw level with Kuwaki, only to drop a shot at the 16th. The German refused to relent, however, rolling in a crucial birdie putt at the last to force the play-off.<\/p>\n
World number one Nelly Korda briefly held the clubhouse lead after a closing three-under 68 but it was not enough to challenge for the title, leaving her tied for fourth on two under with world number two Jeeno Thitikul.<\/p>\n
South Korea’s Haeran Ryu saw her bid for a third consecutive major fade with bogeys at the 17th and 18th, finishing tied for sixth on one under alongside home hopes Lottie Woad and Charley Hull.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Japan’s Shiho Kuwaki claimed her first major title by defeating Germany’s Esther Henseleit in a play-off to win…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":581108,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[9],"tags":[61,60,112],"class_list":["post-581107","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-sports","tag-ie","tag-ireland","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/581107","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=581107"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/581107\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/581108"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=581107"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=581107"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=581107"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}