(Sunningdale, England August 1 2004) England’s Karen Stupples blew her challengers out of the water with a breathtaking display of golf during the final round of the £1.05million Weetabix Women’s British Open to win her first major championship.
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| “The putt at 15 was big for me” |
“The fans went wild and I thought it must have gone in, it was fantastic.”
Teske, in the group behind, got off to the ideal start – birdie-birdie – but found herself two shots behind having done nothing wrong, not that she knew as she did not look at the scoreboard.
Up ahead, Stupples maintained her composure and notched up pars at the next three holes. But with a three-putt bogey at the sixth, she gave Teske an opening. In fact, the Australian went on to birdie the signature hole, the seventh and the pair tied on 15-under as they reached the turn.
Both players birdied the tenth, along with Bowie, who was still in the hunt, but Stupples went ahead at the 11th with a deft approach to a foot to reach six under for the day.
All three leaders made a hash of the 12th in various fashions and none could take advantage of the par five 14th. Stupples three putted for par, while Teske made a mess of her pitch and two putted.
But as Teske’s par putt went in, Stupples turned the tournament in her favour with a 25-foot putt from off the green at the 15th, a notoriously difficult par three of 215-yards.
“I was so pumped when that went in…so happy to see it drop. That was big for me.” she admitted.
And in a grandstand finish, the former Curtis Cup player birdied the 16th and then the 17th to pull away by five shots from Teske.
“I realised then that I had the tournament in the bag,” admitted Stupples.
