More than 1,400 days after her last LPGA Tour victory, Anna Nordqvist has found the winner’s circle again. She captured the AIG Women’s Open by one shot to win her third career major championship title.
The Women’s Open – which, after a special announcement from presenting sponsor AIG earlier in the week now boasts the biggest purse in the women’s game – is the final major on the LPGA Tour’s schedule.
Nordqvist’s last win came four years ago at another major, the Evian Championship.
“I think this is the most special one,” said Nordqvist of her three major triumphs. “Just because it’s taken me a couple years and I’ve fought so hard and questioned whether I was doing the right things.”
Contested at Carnoustie Golf Links for just the second time (it’s an eight-time host of the men’s Open Championship), Nordqvist managed to stay steady in the final round after firing a sizzling 7-under 65 in the third round – which was the round of the tournament.
Nordqvist, who shot a 3-under 69, was tied with Nanna Koerstz Madsen standing on the 18th tee, but Koerstz Madsen found a greenside bunker with her approach and hit a dreaded shank as she tried to escape it. After a double bogey for Koerstz Madsen, Nordqvist just needed a tap-in par to seal the win.
In the process, Nordqvist became just the third European woman to capture three or more majors (joining Laura Davies and fellow Swede Annika Sorenstam). Her win also snapped a run of nine consecutive first-time major winners on the LPGA Tour.
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Nordqvist joins Thailand’s Patty Tavatanakit, Yuka Saso of the Philippines, Nelly Korda of the United States, and Minjee Lee of Australia as major winners on the LPGA Tour this season.
“There’s just something about golf that keeps driving me. I hate losing probably more than I like winning,” said Nordqvist. “I think all the controversy and all the downs… and having my caddie and husband there pushing me every day being a rock; I hate to give up. I feel like things have been coming together, and I saw a lot of good things coming last year and a lot of good things happening this year.”
England’s Georgia Hall, who won the Women’s Open in 2018, finished one shot back of Nordqvist’s winning total. Hall, Lizette Salas, and another Swede, Madelene Sagstrom, finished tied for second at 11-under. Koerstz Madsen ended up at 10-under and tied for fifth alongside Lee, who was looking to win back-to-back majors. Lee shot 6-under 66 in the final round – the day’s best score.
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Salas became the first woman in more than a decade to have two runner-up finishes at major championships in the same season (she finished T2 at the KPMG Women’s PGA Championship).
Golf Town Athlete Brooke Henderson finished tied for 13th.
Brooke got out of the gate quickly with two birdies in her first six holes but stumbled in the middle of her round making bogeys on No’s 9, 10, and 12. Although she added a birdie on the par-5 14th, it was too little, too late to make a charge.
Still, Brooke finished inside the top-25 at each of the five major championships on the schedule this season and had a top-10 at the U.S. Women’s Open.
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Brooke shot rounds of 71-69-70-72 at Carnoustie. Her T13 is her second-best result at the Women’s Open in her career.
With the CP Women’s Open cancelled next week and the Solheim Cup the week afterwards, Brooke is now looking forward to a deserved three-week break after a very busy summer of travel that saw her go around the world competing in majors, the Olympics, and trying to have a rest at home in Florida!
The LPGA Tour returns to action again with the Cambia Portland Classic in mid-September, an event Brooke has won twice in the past.