NOW that’s what they call an emphatic victory. Karrie Webb has shot a course record 61 to win her 7th ANZ Ladies Master by six strokes at Royal Pines.
Webb’s 26 under total (68 69 64 61) equalled her 1999 PLGA tournament record and she will now go into the Handa Australian Womens Open in Melbourne this week as a firm favourite.
The 36 year old former World No 1 blitzed her playing partners, fellow Queenslander Katherine Hull and Korean Bo-Mee Lee, who finished tied for second on 20 under.
Webb started her final round on Sunday on 15 under, one ahead of her playing partners, but when she holed her nine iron second shot into the cup at the seventh hole for eagle, tournament officials should have known it was time to start searching the record books.
At some point they did. Her seventh win in one tournament was being claimed as a Ladies European Tour record, beating Annika Sorenstam’s six Swedish Opens.
She has also equalled Tiger Woods performance of seven wins at the WGC Bridgestone Invitational but will need one more to equal the PGA’s record of eight wins held by the legendary Sam Snead.
“The quality of golf today you were seeing was unbelievable,” Webb said. “Katherine was pushing me all the way. Every time I thought I’d created some breathing space, she came back with a birdie. I’m actually really, really exhausted.”
”Who would have thought I’d be standing on the 13th tee, eight under for the day and only two shots ahead? I was really starting to struggle and was very mentally tired at that point. My hat’s off to Katherine how she played for inspiring me to get to another level. I knew she was going to bring it all today and she did. One of us was going to break, we couldn’t go on making birdies forever.”
Hull acknowledged Webb’s brilliant performance and was looking forward to round two at the Australian Open at the Commonwealth Golf Club beginning on Thursday.
”It was impressive to watch,” Hull said. ”It was an absolute clinic on Karrie’s part. It was nice that I challenged her there for a bit, but she came home all guns blazing and deserved to win. She played great.”
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