By Keely Levins
As if preparing to play in the Solheim Cup didn’t come with some inherent nervousness, imagine how European team member Jodi Ewart Shadoff is feeling after arriving on-site to compete in the biennial matches for the third time in her career, only for her golf clubs not to have accompanied her?

As was the case earlier this summer when Ryann O’Toole’s clubs were lost before the Evian Championship, Shadoff flew a commercial flight to Scotland and checked her clubs with the airline.

Shadoff’s husband, Adam, told Golf Digest that Shadoff flew Aer Lingus from Orlando to Dublin, then Dublin to Edinburgh. “She looked out the window in Dublin and saw that her golf clubs weren’t getting loaded onto the plane,” Adam said via Instagram direct messaging. “She told the flight attendant and they assured her that they’d be loaded.”

As of Monday night Scotland time, Shadoff’s clubs still hadn’t arrived.

Still waiting to fill this awesome empty bag with clubs @AerLingus ? @SolheimCupEuro pic.twitter.com/SgHbPrnUBz

— Jodi Ewart Shadoff (@Jodi_Ewart) September 9, 2019

Amazingly, though, Shadoff isn’t the only golfer competing in the Solheim Cup facing the same unsettling situation. Angel Yin, a member of the American team, had at least two bags go missing from her Aer Lingus flight, including her clubs, en route to Scotland. LPGA officials say that a clothing bag has since arrived, but that Yin’s clubs have not.

The post A pair of Solheim Cup players’ clubs have been lost by airline, have yet to arrive in Scotland appeared first on Golf Digest Middle East.

By Kent Gray
Charley Hull has a second Ladies European Tour (LET) and third worldwide title within her sights entering the final round of the Fatima Bint Mubarak Ladies Open.

The 22-year-old Englishwoman will take a one stroke lead over fellow English Solheim Cupper Jodi Ewart Shadoff into Saturday’s final round of the 54-hole LET season opener at Saadiyat Beach Golf Club.

Hull negotiated a breezy Friday in Abu Dhabi to sign for a level par 72 after her opening 67 to be -5 for the championship through 36 holes.

Shadoff, meanwhile, nabbed two birdies in her last three holes for a two-under 70, matching her opening round score and tying the best round of the day with just three other players.

A stroke further back in a share of third are Marianne Skarpnord, who posted a 70, Cajsa Persson, who had a 71 and Luna Sobron, who carded a 72, on a day when only 11 players managed to break par.

Hull played the front nine in level par after making her first birdie on the par-5 2nd hole, but bogeyed the 6th and 8th, before making another birdie on the long ninth.

She dropped into a share of the lead with Sobron after another bogey on 13, but regained her lead with a gutsy birdie on the par-3 17th, rolling in her 15-foot putt after finding the green despite gusty 25mph winds blowing in across the Arabian Gulf.

“It was really tough out there today,” said Hull.

“To give you an example, I flushed a 7-iron 118 yards on hole 17. The pin was 120 yards and I still came up short. I usually hit that club 165-170 yards, so that is a ridiculous wind.

“It was lucky that we had Tifdwarf Bermuda grass on the greens, because in the UK the ball would have been oscillating. “

Hull won the LET’s Lalla Meryem Cup in Morocco in 2014 and the LPGA’s season-ending CME Globe in Florida two years later but knows Saturday won’t be easy.

“I’ve still got loads to work on for tomorrow’s round but I feel good with where my game’s at. Hopefully it’s not as windy, because my new irons are going super spinny, so it’s not ideal in this wind.”

Shadoff is chasing a maiden professional win. The 30-year-old from Northallerton admits she is not a fan of linksy golf so was thilled with her Friday performance.

“Shooting 70 today definitely felt much lower than the previous day. It was brutal and I hit 16 greens, which was really solid for these conditions. I hit two good putts on 16 and 17 which really helps,” she said.

“I had a 7-iron into 16 from about 129 yards, straight into the wind and I holed about a 15 footer. On 17, it was about the same yardage and same size putt, so two decent putt lengths.”

Sobron, 24, from Mallorca is another serious contender, looking for her first Ladies European Tour win. She carded the course record of 10-under-par 62 in the tournament’s last staging and grew up playing in the wind.

Norwegian Skarpnord is a three-time winner on the LET but hasn’t won on the tour since the rain-hit South African Women’s Open in 2013, although she did win the 2015 Vic Open on a links course.

Sweden’s Persson teamed up with Linda Wessberg to win a gold medal in the European Team Golf Championships at Gleneagles in July, but is looking for her first individual title.

The other players rounding out the top 10 are Nanna Koerstz Madsen, Sarah Kemp and Nicole Broch Larsen in joint sixth on two-under, Rebecca Artis in ninth on one-under and Amy Boulden in 10thposition on level par.

The post Hull takes one-stroke lead into Saturday’s final round of LET season-opener at Saadiyat Beach appeared first on Golf Digest Middle East.

It has taken her a while though. Before “the putt,” Kim racked up as many as eight top-10 finishes in the five majors that constitute the female Grand Slam. Since then, and before this week, she has been in similar contention on only three occasions. Twice as often, the 29-year-old South Korean missed the halfway cut.

Now though, all the close misses and one particular miss from close-range can be consigned to Kim’s personal rubbish bin. Especially as her maiden major win was achieved in a dominant style reserved for only a special few. Six-strokes ahead after a brilliant third-round 66 compiled in the worst of Saturday’s squally weather, the now seven-time LPGA champion strolled round the Kingsbarns links in 71—15 pars, two birdies and one bogey—to win by two strokes from Jodi Ewart Shadoff.

“I cannot describe my feelings,” said Kim, who has now won three times on the LPGA since the beginning of June. “I just tried to have some fun, but it wasn’t fun on the back nine. I got really inspired playing here in Scotland. So many people come here just to play golf and I feel so lucky. I didn’t have too much fear and just gave my best.

“The birdie at the first was a bit lucky, but I hit some really great shots today. I almost cried when I won, winning is great. It’s been a long process to get over 2012. A lot of people helped me. Now I enjoy playing golf again. What it did teach me is to to give the same effort to every shot, even the shortest of putts.”

It was as smooth as that sounds. Only briefly did any of those who might have imagined themselves challengers get close enough to even remotely threaten the leader. Best of those was Ewart Shadoff, whose eighth birdie of the day at the 17th took her to 16 under par and two back.

“I didn’t think starting the day that I would have a shot,” said the 29-year old Florida-based Englishwoman. “I had a great stretch in the middle of the round to get me going. My plan at the start was just to take the opportunities when I got them and that’s what I did.”

Michelle Wie almost matched that feat. After a stunning outward 30, the American’s seventh birdie of the day at the 12th left her four behind before a disappointing finish ended her slim hopes.

In truth, for all that the likes of Wie, Lexi Thompson, Stacy Lewis and Ewart Shadoff performed with something akin to distinction over the final 18 holes, each shooting under par—their play represented nothing more than skirmishing for the minor places on the podium. And through it all, Kim went along serenely. Par after par, with the odd birdie thrown in, just to break any monotony.

Indeed, not once did soon-to-be champion look to be in any kind of real trouble, an early birdie at the par-3 opening hole, where her tee-shot finished 18-inches from the cup, quickly displaying the lofty level of her confidence. And no wonder. When Kim eventually did make a mistake, the three-putt bogey she recorded on the ninth was her first in 44 holes. Just one more impressive statistic that provided her pursuers with little or no encouragement.

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