Matt Cooper previews the final major of the season and gives Linn Grant his headline vote for the AIG Women's Open at Walton Heath.
Golf betting tips: AIG Women's Open
2pts e.w. Linn Grant at 22/1 (Sky Bet, Unibet 1/5 1,2,3,4,5,6)
1pt e.w. Jiyai Shin at 35/1 (Coral, Ladbrokes 1/5 1,2,3,4,5,6,7)
1pt e.w. Anna Nordqvist at 70/1 (Coral, Ladbrokes 1/5 1,2,3,4,5,6,7)
1pt e.w. Steph Kyriacou at 80/1 (General 1/5 1,2,3,4,5,6)
1pt e.w. Gaby Lopez at 80/1 (Coral, Ladbrokes 1/5 1,2,3,4,5,6,7)
Imagine the scene: it is 1913 and we are at Pinfold Manor, second home of the Chancellor of the Exchequer David Lloyd George, in the Surrey village of Walton-on-the-Hill. Early one morning there is an explosion at the Manor and when the local constabulary show up they uncover rumours of motor vehicles in the night and whispered voices behind the public house, they discover a stray galosh in a field and hat pins next to unused explosives.
It reads like a tale from the Golden Age of Detective Fiction. You half expect Hercule Poirot or Lord Peter Wimsey to pop up and start sniffing around for more clues. But this is no whodunnit. The perpetrators have already revealed themselves. Lloyd George uses this second home when he’s playing golf at nearby Walton Heath GC and this is just the latest of many attacks by the Suffragettes on the golfing activities of Britain’s leading politicians.
Emmeline Pankhurst, who accepted sole responsibility for the Walton-on-the-Hill bombing and was briefly imprisoned for it, cried: “We are not fighting you because you play golf. We are not fighting you at all, but trying to stir you up.”
Shortly afterwards, Prime Minister Herbert Asquith was disturbed during a round in Elgin when a Suffragette jumped from a bunker and tipped his hat off. Elsewhere, the words “No surrender!” were gouged onto greens. Herbert Leach, reporting for the American Golfer wrote: “It is somewhat peculiar that they should wage war upon golf considering that it has become the favourite recreation of their own sex; but there it is, one more example of the unreasonableness of women.”
And now, 110 years later, the Women’s Open makes its debut at Walton Heath. Funny old world. Herbert would be beside himself.
What’s more, any mention of Poirot is appropriate because identifying the last four champions has been a fiendish test of the little grey cells: Hinako Shibuno was 250/1, Sophia Popov 125/1, Anna Nordqvist 66/1 and Ashleigh Buhai 200/1 last year.
This week’s backdrop is not the Orient Express or the River Nile but a Herbert Fowler classic because the championship will be contested on a composite layout that uses 16 holes of the Old Course (missing out the first and third) and two on the New.
The fairway turf is springy and fast-running, the rough is mostly beautiful but penal heather, and the greens are large, sweeping and swift. Well, that’s the theory. The heavy rain of July has had an impact on conditions but a mostly dry and surprisingly windy forecast (up to 35mph on Friday and Saturday, 30mph on Sunday) could help produce the ideal set-up.
How big a part will the heather play in the outcome this week? pic.twitter.com/R551J1IzgO
— AIG Women’s Open (@AIGWomensOpen) August 8, 2023
This is not linksland, of course, but heathland has many similar qualities. That heather is one difference because it’s as stubborn as an Edwardian male MP and an Edwardian female agitator combined. Also note that, given the exposed nature of the course and the wind predictions, the greens might be slowed down.
The top of the market is relatively easy to bypass. Hyo Joo Kim won on her major debut but never since in 38 tries and she hobbled her way around Dundonald Links last week with an ankle injury. Nelly Korda is the world number one but has won once and finished top six in just another four of her 36 majors (and all of those good efforts came in the US). Celine Boutier has been superb in the last fortnight winning twice but the hat trick would be some feat. Rose Zhang’s pro record reads 1-8-9-MC-9 and she was tied fifth after 18 holes when missing that cut. She’s very, very good, but also short in price.
We’ll kick off with a mystery to test the little Belgian fellow with the moustache. In the last 26 years, 12 winners of this championship didn’t play at Highland Meadows in the year of their win. But the other 14? Twelve of them played before the Women’s Open, two afterwards, and all 14 finished top 10. Yes, I do mean that Highland Meadows. The one in Toledo, Ohio. And yes, those Women’s Open winners did achieve their success on a variety of parkland, heathland or linksland courses.
As it so happens, the two names I have most wrestled with near the top played well at Highland Meadows last month: LINN GRANT won and Minjee Lee was seventh.
The latter is consistent in this event with six top-12 finishes from nine starts, the last three of them top five. She’s good on the Australian sandbelt which shares some qualities with the heathland test and is major winner in 2021 and 2022. But she has no top 10 in the big ones this year and keeps throwing in a big number – 75 to close at Evian, 80 to start last week.
Grant just squeaks it. The win at Highland Meadow, regardless of the mystery connection, was very, very impressive, she won at Royal Troon and North Berwick as an amateur, and was also T18 (third among the women) at the heathland Vallda up against an LET/DP World Tour field when still at college. Turning good major efforts into contention is the next step in her career. She was twice in the top four at halfway in the US Women’s Open as an amateur and she’s finished top 20 in four of the five majors she’s contended in the pro ranks.
Her first impressions of the venue were good. “I haven’t been out there yet, but I think I’m going to like the course,” she said on Monday. “I love the look of it. I hope it will suit me. I feel like I’m playing really solid golf and I feel like this could be my week.”
Lilia, Lexi and Linn (5/6) pic.twitter.com/Wz8tYSflZJ
— AIG Women’s Open (@AIGWomensOpen) August 8, 2023
Australia’s STEPH KYRIACOU was fourth at Highland Meadows last month when second heading into the final round.
The 22-year-old has made the cut in all nine of her major championship starts and in this event was T13 at Carnoustie and seventh at Muirfield last year. She hasn’t missed a cut since March and finished top 20 in both the Evian Championship and Scottish Open during the last fortnight.
“I really like playing golf in the UK,” she said on Monday, adding: “I like playing in the wind and heathland course reminds me of where I grew up.” The Aussie is the keenest pick of the week at 80/1.
Let’s also add Mexico’s GABY LOPEZ, who was tied seventh at Highland Meadow when defending the trophy.
The 29-year-old is a three-time winner on the LPGA and her tied third in the Evian two weeks ago was a fourth top 30 in six major championship starts. She also has five top-30 finishes on links layouts and another two at The Grange on the Adelaide sandbelt.
JIYAI SHIN couldn’t quite pull off the win at the US Open but her second place finish vindicated the column’s theory that her fine form in Japan this season was worth backing.
She has won this championship twice, at Royal Liverpool and also Sunningdale which isn’t too far literally or in golfing terms from Walton Heath.
She also has an exceptional record on classic/sandbelt courses down under with two wins at Royal Canberra and second places at Commonwealth and Kingston Heath. Her eye has always fitted a traditional test and she’s already highlighted strong course management (to avoid the heather) is a must this week.
Those veteran wiles might work again.
Welcoming the current Trophy holder, Ashleigh Buhai, along with Jiyai Shin of Korea, Steph Kyriacou of Australia, Atthaya Thitikul of Thailand, Kokona Sakuri of Japan, Lauren Coughlin of the USA, Linn Grant of Sweden & Yu Liu of China as they prepare for the 2023 @AIGWomensOpen! pic.twitter.com/aD4BfFAnc4
— Walton Heath Golf Club (@waltonheath_gc) August 7, 2023
Finally, the large greens and fact that there are plenty of short grass areas around them brings ANNA NORDQVIST into the equation.
Two years ago I posted this preview on Tuesday and actually played the course Wednesday in the pro-am (ludicrously we won it with Charley Hull). That night I contemplated the standout features of the course, considered that we saw little thick grass around the putting surfaces and Nordqvist’s name popped in my head. She then putted from off the green when she needed to and lifted the trophy.
There will be some worried, and indeed put off, by her withdrawal last week. On the other hand she was third in the KPMG PGA Championship and 20th at the Evian. She has an exceptional record at the traditional Donald Ross design at Seaview and seven top-12 finishes (four of them top seven which would earn a payout) in her last dozen starts in the championship.
Posted at 1655 BST on 08/08/23
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