The 2011 Ricoh Women's British Open was held 28–31 July at Carnoustie Golf Links in Angus, Scotland. It was the 35th Women's British Open, and the 11th as a major championship on the LPGA Tour. This was the first time for the Women's British Open at Carnoustie, which previously hosted seven Open Championships, most recently in 2007.
Yani Tseng became the first to successfully defend her title at the Women's British Open as a major championship, four strokes ahead of runner-up Brittany Lang. She became youngest player, male or female, to win five major titles.
Exemptions and qualifying events The field for the tournament was 144, and golfers gained a place in three ways. Most players earned exemptions based on good past performances on the Ladies European Tour, the LPGA and in previous major championships and top-ranked players in the Women's World Golf Rankings. The rest of the field earned entry by successfully competing in qualifying tournaments open to any professional female golfer or amateur with a low handicap.
There were 14 exemption categories for the 2011 Women's British Open. These included:
The top 15 finishers (and ties) from the 2010 Women's British Open. The top 10 Ladies European Tour members in the Women's World Golf Rankings who did not finish in the top 15 of the 2010 Women's British Open. The top 30 LPGA Tour members in the Women's World Golf Rankings who did not finish in the top 15 of the 2010 Women's British Open. The top 25 on the current LET money list not already exempt from the 2010 Women's British Open or the world rankings. The top 40 on the current LPGA Tour money list not already exempt from the 2010 Women's British Open or the world rankings. The top five on the current LPGA of Japan Tour money list not already exempt from the 2010 Women's British Open or through the world rankings if they are also members of the LET or LPGA. (Note that these six categories have accounted for approximately 125 entries — or 5/6ths of the players in the final field.) Winners of any recognised LET or LPGA events in the calendar year 2011. The champions from the last 10 editions of the Women's British Open. The champions of the last five editions of one of the other three LPGA majors.
Course The 2011 course layout at Carnoustie Golf Links.
Hole123456789Out101112131415161718InTotalYards3943963203693584903811564063,2704033474051414674252134333863,2206,490Par444445434364443543543672
Set-up The par-72 course was set by the Ladies Golf Union (LGU) at , shorter than the par-71 set-up for the 2007 Open Championship.
The short set-up of the course was criticized by several notable golfers and golf commentators. ESPN golf commentator and former LPGA pro Jane Crafter called the LGU "out of touch" with how current women players can play. Defending champion Yani Tseng commented that the famous hole number 18 was set up so that it "put all of the bunkers out of play, put all of the burns out of play." The course groundskeeper agreed that the women had been given "a watered-down version" of Carnoustie and that he did that intentionally after receiving too much criticism for a difficult set-up for the Open Championship in 1999.
Round summaries
First round Thursday, 28 July 2011 Place Player Score To par1 Meena Lee65−72 Brittany Lincicome67−5T3 Sophie Gustafson68−4 Caroline Masson Angela Stanford Amy YangT7 Na Yeon Choi69−3 Paula Creamer Caroline Hedwall Amy Hung Lorie Kane Song-Hee Kim Mika Miyazato Momoko Ueda source:
Second round Friday, 29 July 2011 Place Player R1 R2 Total To par1 Caroline Masson6865133−11T2 Meena Lee6569134−10 Inbee Park7064T4 Na Yeon Choi6967136−8 Se Ri Pak7264 Dewi Claire Schreefel70667 Yani Tseng7166137−7T8 Caroline Hedwall6969138−6 Brittany Lincicome6771 Mika Miyazato6969 Amy Yang6870 source:
Amateurs: Kang (−3), Popov (+1), Pretswell (+2), Taylor (+4), Foster (+6), Meadow (+7).
Third round Saturday, 30 July 2011 Place Player R1 R2 R3 Total To par1 Caroline Masson686568201−152 Yani Tseng716666203−13T3 Catriona Matthew706968207−9 Inbee Park7064735 Na Yeon Choi696772208−8T6 Sophie Gustafson687170209−7 Brittany Lang707069 Se Ri Pak726473T9 Paula Creamer697071210−6 Mika Miyazato696972 Anna Nordqvist707169 Dewi Claire Schreefel706674 Sun Young Yoo717069 source:
Final round Sunday, 31 July 2011 Place Player R1 R2 R3 R4 Total To par Money ($)1 Yani Tseng71666669272−16392,133 2 Brittany Lang70706967276−12231,065 3 Sophie Gustafson68717068277−11161,746 4 Amy Yang68707367278−10126,536 T5 Caroline Masson68656878279−996,828 Catriona Matthew70696872T7 Na Yeon Choi69677272280−870,695 Anna Nordqvist70716970 Inbee Park70647373 Sun Young Yoo71706970 source:
Amateurs: Kang (+2), Popov (+11).
Scorecard Final round Hole 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 101112131415161718Par444445434 444354354 Tseng −12 −12 −13 −13 −13 −14 −14 −14 −14 −14 −15 −14 −13 −14 −14 −14 −15 −16 Lang −7 −7 −7 −7 −7 −7 −8 −7 −8 −8 −9 −10 −10 −11 −11 −11 −12 −12 Gustafson −7 −7 −7 −7 −7 −9 −9 −9 −9 −8 −8 −8 −8 −9 −9 −9 −10 −11 Yang −4 −4 −5 −5 −5 −6 −6 −6 −7 −8 −8 −8 −8 −9 −9 −9 −10 −10 Masson −15 −14 −13 −13 −13 −13 −12 −12 −12 −11 −10 −8 −8 −8 −7 −7 −8 −9 Matthew −9 −9 −9 −9 −9 −10 −10 −10 −11 −11 −11 −11 −11 −11 −11 −11 −11 −9 Cumulative tournament scores, relative to par {|class="wikitable" span = 50 style="font-size:85%; |- |style="background: Red;" width=10| |Eagle |style="background: Pink;" width=10| |Birdie |style="background: PaleGreen;" width=10| |Bogey |style="background: Green;" width=10| |Double bogey
References
External links
LPGA.com - Women's British Open - microsite