Sweden’s Linn Grant will be the first woman to win the European Tour
A female player has won an event on the European Tour for the first time.
Linn Grant wrote history in fantastic style as well.
The 22-year-old Swede wiped out a field of both male and female golfers at Scandinavian Mixed on Sunday and won by nine strokes after 8-under 64 in the final round at Halmstad Golf Club in Sweden.
Remarkably, she finished 14 strokes ahead of the second best woman, Gabriella Cowley, who placed tied for 15th place.
“I just hope people recognize women’s golf more now,” Grant said, “that more sponsors go to the LET (Ladies European Tour) than to the men’s tour, and hopefully this pumps up the women’s game a little more.”
Grant started the day with a two-stroke lead and steadily built up her advantage by making a birdie on five of her first six holes, which showed the brilliant ball-playing and calm temperament she has shown all week in southern Sweden.
She first took a nine-stroke lead after dropping in for a birdie on the par-5 11th hole and regained it with her eighth and final birdie for the round on another par 5, the 14th. She spent a bogey-free weekend during the week of her golf life.
It is the second event of a tournament that started with 78 men and 78 women in the field, playing the same course – albeit off different tees – for a prize fund and a trophy.
Grant said her main goal this week was to beat the men.
“That was the most important thing – all week I just felt like it was girls against the boys,” she said.
PGA Tour
Rory McIlroy won the RBC Canadian Open in Toronto, giving the PGA Tour a strong response to the start of the Saudi-funded LIV Golf Invitational, finishing 8-under 62 to win a wild race to the finish with Justin Thomas and Tony Finau.
McIlroy had his first title defense on the PGA Tour, though he had to wait. He won the golf’s fourth oldest national open in 2019 at Hamilton Golf & Country Club, just because the covid-19 pandemic would interrupt the next two editions.
Thomas pushed him to the end of St. Thomas. George’s Golf & Country Club, and the tournament ended effectively on the 17th hole. McIlroy and Thomas were a draw and tough. McIlroy hit a wedge that rolled out to the tap-in range, while Thomas missed a 10-foot par putt, a two-shot swing. Thomas closed with a pair of bogeys and still shot 64.
McIlroy finished at 19 under 261 for a two-stroke victory.
PGA Tour Commissioner Jay Monahan described
Saudi-funded league that has registered Dustin Johnson, Phil Mickelson and Bryson DeChambeau as a “series of show matches” that spend billions of dollars on players without getting a return on their investment.
LPGA Tour
Brooke Henderson took care of the first playoff hole and beat Lindsey Weaver-Wright to take the ShopRite LPGA Classic in Galloway Township, New Jersey, for her 11th victory of the tour.
Henderson shot a bogey-free, final round 7-under-par 64 at the Seaview Hotel and Golf Club to win for the first time in a year. The 24-year-old Canadian recovered from a four-shot deficit as he entered the final round of the 54-hole tournament to finish 12 under 201.
Weaver-Wright, a 28-year-old American still looking for his first tour victory, forced the playoffs with birdies on four of the last six holes.
Champions Tour
Thongchai Jaidee became the first Thai winner in the history of the PGA Tour Champions on Sunday, finishing with a 4-under 68 for a one-time victory in the American Family Insurance Championship in Madison, Wisconsin.
One week after playing in the event with a 10th place finish in Iowa, the 52-year-old Thongchai won in his 19th start of the 50-and-over tour.
Curtis Cup
Top-ranked amateur Rose Zhang set the tone by directing the British amateur champion for ladies Louise Duncan and Rachel Heck conducted an undefeated week at Merion in Pennsylvania when the Americans won the Curtis Cup for the third time in a row.