Indeed, that early dropped shot was merely the harbinger of greater things ahead. And lots of “fun.” Such was her peace of mind, the 27-year-old Hawaiian even had time to take in the stunning vistas across the “ocean” that is actually the indeterminate border between the Firth of Tay and the North Sea known as the Tay Estuary.

“It’s so gorgeous here,” Wie said. “When the weather is nice, it almost felt like I was playing back home in Hawaii with the views and everything. I feel like I got extremely lucky with the conditions out there.”

Maybe, but no one else was going quite so low or making quite as many birdies. The first of the nine appeared at the 399-yard fourth and two more were on the card before the turn. At which point the floodgates sprang apart. Six more red numbers translated into a back-nine 30 and an early three-stroke lead over England’s Mel Reid that was soon enough usurped by I.K. Kim’s 65.

RELATED: How a team of Aussies turned a talented Korean golfer into the new World No. 1

Ever the iconoclast, Wie compiled her unprecedented round in a manner best described as “eccentric.” While conventional wisdom has it that lon irons are generally more useful on a links than lofted woods, the former U.S. Women’s Open champion made good use of both a 9-wood and an 11-wood that have been in the bag since the KPMG Women’s PGA Championship in June. Three of her nine birdies resulted from approach shots struck with those two clubs.

“Callaway has done a great job of accommodating me,” said Wie, looking only slightly embarrassed. “They had to look back into their archives to find me an 11-wood. I’ve never played such high-lofted woods before. The 11-wood goes 180 yards, the same distance as my 5-iron, and is a lot easier to hit than a blade. The 9-wood replaces my 4-hybrid and goes 190-195 yards, although maybe not that far in these conditions.”

RELATED: Jessica Korda withdraws from Ricoh Women’s British Open due to arm injury

Perhaps just as important for Wie as she goes about trying to win for the first time since that Women’s Open at Pinehurst in 2014 is the fact that she is fully fit. A troublesome neck strain caused her to withdraw from this year’s Women’s Open in the second round last month, but all is well after a 19th-place showing last week at the Aberdeen Asset Ladies Scottish Open.

“I hurt my neck the Sunday of KPMG,” she said. “I hit one shot and started getting neck spasms. I didn’t hit a single golf ball until the U.S. Open. I was doing everything I could—three physio treatments a day—but it just wasn’t enough time. The spasms were pretty bad. But I got to see my doctors in New York City after that, got a couple injections, and I feel pretty good.”

Apparently so.

The post A pain-free Michelle Wie jumps to a fast start with 64 at the Women’s British Open appeared first on Golf Digest Middle East.

Granted, the World No. 1 prefaced his remarks by noting that he hit the ball a heck of a lot better this afternoon than he had the two previous trips around the links. (On Friday, for instance, he hit just four greens en route to a two-over 72.)

But when you stand on the 16th tee at six under for the round, six birdies already on your card, and you know a 62 has already been posted by Branden Grace less than an hour earlier, the thought of something really, really low does come to mind. Which makes the three pedestrian pars—leaving an eight-foot birdie try short on 16, making 5 on the par-5 17th after being just over 200 yards in the fairway off the tee and then two-putting from 30 feet on 18—well, as previously said, disappointing.

“Definitely [left] a couple of shots there on the last couple of holes,” Johnson said.

“You definitely still have to think your way around, but definitely coming into the greens, you could be more aggressive because they’re more receptive. So you could be a little more aggressive with your lines and going at flags that you might not normally be able to.”

RELATED: Branden Grace didn’t know 62 was a major record

Johnson can take solace, however, in knowing he’s back in the hunt. At three-under 207, he’ll be among the last few groups teeing off on Sunday. The thing of that is, you just how many back he might wind up being with Jordan Spieth, Matt Kuchar and Brooks Koepka all still on the course with a crack at posting their own low scores under mild conditions at Birkdale.

So what might Johnson need to shoot on Sunday to have a real shot at holding the claret jug?

“You never know what’s going to happen tomorrow. But I figure—who knows what the lead’s going to be at the end of the day today—but I’m going to need to shoot probably nine under, I would imagine. To get to 12, I think that would be a decent number to sit in the clubhouse at.

Dustin, you do know that nine under means a 61, right?

“That’s about—I’m just going to go out tomorrow and play as good as I can and try to post another good score.”

Preferably a low one that won’t disappoint.

The post The Open 2017: The most disappointing 64 of Dustin Johnson’s career? Maybe, but he’s back in it at Birkdale appeared first on Golf Digest Middle East.

The 27-year-old Chinese star swept to her fourth Dubai title in five years Saturday with a stunning eight-under 64 that defied leaderboard logic, event history and most of all the gutsy winds that buffeted the Majlis course all afternoon.

Feng mightn’t have the keys to the clubhouse at Emirates Golf Club but she pretty much owns the club’s marquee course, this time reeling off eight birdies in a blemish free round to finish the season-ending Ladies European Tour (LET) event, shortened to 54 holes, at -10.

Feng’s Midas touch on the Majlis saw her finish two clear of late-charging fellow Omega brand ambassador Charley Hull after the Englishwoman’s 65 saw her leapfrog from T23 overnight. Indian 18-year-old Aditi Ashok (70) capped her LET Rookie-of-the-Year breakthrough by finishing T3 alongside Englishwoman Florentyna Parker (71) at -6.

Feng had started the final round of the LET season five adrift of overnight leader Felicity Johnson (England) and almost an afterthought given the icy cold putter she had wielded to rounds of 72-70 and a 36-hole share of 13th. More fool us all.

“Of course it was different, because I think in the first three times that I won, I was leading by five shots into the final days. This time, I was five behind so I knew that I would have to play hard to try to catch the leaders,” Feng said

“I knew that it was going to be windy today and I knew that playing in the wind is one of my strongest parts. So even though I was five behind, I always thought that maybe I would still have a chance to win this week and I tried my best. Eight-under was a pretty good score.

“Of course I’m so excited today, because I didn’t play super well the first two days. My putting was kind of lost and I’m very happy that I was able to putt well today and make a lot of birdies to make the crowds excited. I’m just really happy that I brought out my A-game in front of all the crowds.”

The feeling was most definitely mutual from the galleries, many of them here when Feng won in 2012, 2014 and last year

The Rio Olympic Games bronze medalist owns all the most important tournament records – including the low aggregate (-21 in both 2012 and 2015) and widest winning margin (12 shots last year) – and added another with her virtuoso finish, the 64 eclipsing her own lowest final round by a winner, a 66 last year which had matched the marker by 2013 champion Pornanong Phatlum.

If you want some really impressive figures then consider Feng is a combined 74-under par for 19 rounds on the Majlis. That’s a scarily good stroke average of 68.10; only once has she failed to break par, an opening 76 in 2013 when she still managed fifth place.

About the only record she didn’t claim Saturday was Dutchwoman Dewi Claire Schreefel’s 2012 course record score of 63 although she gave it an alrighty scare with birdie putts burning the hole on both 17 and 18.

Feng finally got her flat-stick firing despite the late misses and it was curtains for the field, among them Johnson who fell fell away to a 75 and a share of seventh place.

“I would say that the putting, yes, finally it’s working. You’ve been asking me the whole week, ‘oh, what are you doing, the first and second day, you’re not putting same as what you were doing here in the past years’. I asked myself, I didn’t know either,” Feng said.

So what did you do differently?

“I made small adjustments on my posture. I think I found like the most comfortable way to putt again. I was misjudging about the speed the first day, Yesterday, I got the speed better. Today I got the speed and the line better. So that’s why the balls were dropping.”

Over and over again, just like her rivals bowing to the Queen of Dubai. On second thoughts, the chief engraver probably won’t want to miss next year.

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