The saturated clouds had a silver lining for Mi Jung Hur here at the Aberdeen Standard Investments Ladies Scottish Open.
On a miserable day at The Renaissance, which was so wet it probably led to the Bass Rock having to undergo some damp-proofing work, the 29-year-old from Korea conjured a great, squelching surge to ease to a four shot victory and claim her third LPGA Tour title and a first since 2014.
Hur covered her final 10 holes in six-under-par en route to a charging 66 for a 20-under 264.
That left her comfortably clear of joint runners-up Mariya Jutanugarn of Thailand and the reigning US Women’s Open champion Jeongeun Lee6 with Scotland’s Carly Booth earning a share of ninth on 10-under.
As the rain came down and everything was as grey and as sodden as a torpedoed battleship, Hur illuminated affairs with a terrific display of craft and composure while her bright green luminous waterproofs just about seared the retinas of those peering on.
With the leaderboard tightly bunched – there were four sharing the lead at one point around the turn – Hur’s decisive thrust propelled her away from the pack.
Two years ago, she harnessed appalling conditions at Dundonald to finish in a share of second in the Scottish Open.
Here in the east of the country, and with a little help from local caddie Gary Marshall, she plotted a path to a fine conquest and the first prize of almost £187,000. Marshall’s calming words, pearls of wisdom and general nous was a key weapon in Hur’s armoury.
“During Thursday’s first round I started with a birdie on the first hole but then made two bogeys and I was mad,” she recalled. “He told me on the fourth tee box, ‘come on, MJ, you can win this tournament’. And then today, I had made a bogey on the third and again on the fourth tee he helped me to calm down again.”
READ MORE: Nordqvist set for local support at Gleneagles
It certainly had the desired effect. After a stream of pars, Hur birdied the ninth which provided the catalyst for a profitable push of four birdies in a row.
Her back nine of 31 didn’t earn a guard of honour but it did get a guard of squeegees as the hardworking greenkeepers battled manfully to keep the water at bay.
A pivotal moment for Hur came on the par-5 12th when she left herself 30-feet away from the pin with her third shot but managed to hole the raking putt. “After that, I felt I could win the tournament and I just played with confidence after that,” she admitted.
As Hur celebrated, there were reasons to be cheerful for Anne van Dam, whose share of sixth secured automatic qualification for Europe’s Solheim Cup team. Sweden’s Anna Nordqvist also rubber-stamped her qualification for Catriona Matthew’s side.
Booth, meanwhile, hadn’t dropped a shot for 50 holes but she made bogeys on the 16th and the 18th in a closing 71.
Congratulations to @CarlyBooth92 who finished T9 & won the Douglas Lowe Memorial Trophy as the leading Scot @ASInvestmentsUK @LadiesScottish 🏆#ASILSO pic.twitter.com/V2f9SKSKTo
— Ladies European Tour (@LETgolf) August 11, 2019
The 27-year-old still managed a top-10 finish though and the cheque for around £29,350 was almost as much as she collected for winning the Scottish title seven years ago.
As the leading Scot in the field, Booth picked up the Douglas Lowe Memorial Trophy, a prize dedicated to the memory of The Herald’s former golf correspondent.
“I can’t pick out too many negatives,” said an upbeat Booth. “This event is different from when I won it and you’re now playing against some of the best in the world. The standard is so much higher.”
In the end, it was the inspired Hur who set that standard.
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 hereLast Updated:
Report this comment Cancel