After staring down world number one – and the winner of two majors already this year – it was Japan’s Hinako Shibuno who captured the final major of the LPGA Tour season.
Shibuno shot a 4-under-par 68 on Sunday at Woburn Golf and Country Club’s Marquees course to win the AIG Women’s British Open by one shot over Lizette Salas, and by two over Jin Young Ko – the winner of last week’s Evian Championship and the ANA Inspiration earlier this year.
It was quite the week for Shibuno, who was playing her very first tournament outside of her native Japan. At just 20 years old, Shibuno is the youngest major championship winner in 2019. It was her first career LPGA Tour title, to go along with two titles on the Japanese LPGA.
With the win, Shibuno is eligible for LPGA Tour membership, and she can either accept – making 2019 her rookie season – or take membership for 2020 instead.
Her major championship victory is just the second by a Japanese player in the history of the LPGA Tour. She joins Chako Higuchi, who won the 1977 KPMG Women’s PGA Championship.
“It’s definitely exceeding my expectations,” said Shibuno after her third round. “I came in wanting to make the cut, so right now I feel like I’m doing something very incredible.”
Shibuno is in rare company, as she’s just the 26th non-LPGA member to win a LPGA Tour event, and the first since Ko in 2017.
She also became just the second player this decade to win in her major debut, joining Hyo Koo Kim (2014 Evian Championship).
Shibuno held off the hard-charging Salas who shot a 7-under-par 65 Sunday, the round of the day. She birdied the 72nd hole to win the championship after Salas’ birdie try on the par-4 18th lipped out. She bounced back after making a double bogey on the par-4 3rd hole with five birdies on the back nine.
Shibuno, who is nicknamed the ‘Smiling Cinderella,’ raised her putter in the air as her birdie from about 25-feet began tracking closer and closer to the hole. The smile never left her face after she won. The nickname, she said Saturday, came after her first win in Japan.
Charley Hull, who is a member at Woburn, finished at 4-over on Sunday and fell down the leaderboard into a tie for 35th. Fellow Englishwoman and defending champion Georgia Hall finished at 3-under, while Golf Town athlete Brooke Henderson finished a shot further back at 2-under, and tied for 41st. Fellow Canadian Alena Sharp, the only other Canadian in the field, missed the cut.
Henderson ended up with two top-20 finishes at major championships in 2019.
The next time she’ll tee it up will be at the CP Women’s Open at Magna Golf Club just north of Toronto where she is the defending champion. The LPGA Tour, meanwhile, heads to Scotland for the Ladies Scottish Open next week.