The wind took the week off at famed Carnoustie, but the best in the women’s game did everything they could to still deliver drama. As many as six players held the lead early on at the AIG Women’s British Open on Sunday, and it stayed bunched up until the finish in sunny Scotland when Anna Nordqvist outlasted them all.
Nordqvist breaks a streak of nine consecutive first-time major winners and ends a personal victory drought that stretches back 1,435 days when she won the 2017 Amundi Evian Championship in a playoff. Nordqvist played Carnoustie’s tough four finishing holes in even par, carding a 3-under 69 to win by one at 12 under and earn her third different major title.
Denmark’s Nanna Koerstz Madsen came into the 72nd hole hole tied with Nordqvist but suffered a heart-breaking double-bogey on the taxing 18th that included a shocking shank from a greenside bunker.
Georgia Hall, the 2018 AIG champion, set the early clubhouse mark of 11 under after a final-round 67 that included two eagles. She finished runner-up alongside Sweden’s Madelene Sagstrom (68) and American Lizette Salas (69).
Scottish amateur Louise Duncan, the 2021 R&A Women’s Amateur champion, shot 72 and tied for 10th, delighting the hearty local crowds in her major debut. It marked the best finish by an amateur since Michelle Wie and Louise Stahle both placed in the top 10 in 2005.
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