It’s taken a while – 228 events to be precise – but Ryann O’Toole finally won an LPGA Tour title with a commanding victory in the Trust Golf Women’s Scottish Open at Dumbarnie Links.
In her 11th year on the circuit, O’Toole got over the winning line with a terrific display of front-running golf as she staved off the menacing advances of a chasing pack with a closing eight-under 64.
That gave the Californian a 17-under total and a three shot victory over Thai teenager Atthaya Thitikul and the rampaging Lydia Ko, who came roaring into the reckoning with a course-record 63.
The champagne had been on ice for so long as far as O’Toole was concerned, the bottle was almost fossilised. When she was doused with the sparkling stuff on the 18th green, it was a soaking to savour. “Hopefully more goes in my belly than on me,” the 34-year-old said as she anticipated a night of joyous glass-clinking.
This breakthrough success may just have prolonged her career as a touring golfer too. “You get to a point in your life when you're sitting going, ‘Okay, I'm getting married in December, I want to have kids, how much longer am I going to be out here?’ I thought maybe this year would be my last year. But I don't know if I could stop playing golf now.”
O’Toole admitted she got her “butt kicked” the first time she played links golf in the Women’s Open at Hoylake in 2012 but she put in a virtuoso performance over four days in Fife to find redemption.
Sharing the lead overnight, O’Toole made her intentions clear as she picked up three birdies over her first five holes.
She was still tied for the lead with Thitikul at the turn but as her Thai rival stumbled on the back-nine, O’Toole fortified her position of authority with a trio of birdies coming home to march to victory.
As O’Toole celebrated, Nairn’s Kelsey MacDonald also had plenty to be pleased about as she finished as the leading Scot in a share of 15th on seven-under after a closing 70. That also earned her a debut in this week’s AIG Women’s Open at Carnoustie. “It's all about getting to that next level and hopefully a win is just around the corner," she said.
As O’Toole proved, you never know what this game has in store.
Why are you making commenting on The Herald only available to subscribers?
It should have been a safe space for informed debate, somewhere for readers to discuss issues around the biggest stories of the day, but all too often the below the line comments on most websites have become bogged down by off-topic discussions and abuse.
heraldscotland.com is tackling this problem by allowing only subscribers to comment.
We are doing this to improve the experience for our loyal readers and we believe it will reduce the ability of trolls and troublemakers, who occasionally find their way onto our site, to abuse our journalists and readers. We also hope it will help the comments section fulfil its promise as a part of Scotland's conversation with itself.
We are lucky at The Herald. We are read by an informed, educated readership who can add their knowledge and insights to our stories.
That is invaluable.
We are making the subscriber-only change to support our valued readers, who tell us they don't want the site cluttered up with irrelevant comments, untruths and abuse.
In the past, the journalist’s job was to collect and distribute information to the audience. Technology means that readers can shape a discussion. We look forward to hearing from you on heraldscotland.com
Comments & Moderation
Readers’ comments: You are personally liable for the content of any comments you upload to this website, so please act responsibly. We do not pre-moderate or monitor readers’ comments appearing on our websites, but we do post-moderate in response to complaints we receive or otherwise when a potential problem comes to our attention. You can make a complaint by using the ‘report this post’ link . We may then apply our discretion under the user terms to amend or delete comments.
Post moderation is undertaken full-time 9am-6pm on weekdays, and on a part-time basis outwith those hours.
Read the rules here