By Keely Levins
It would be hard to find a player less likely to win the AIG Women’s British Open than Hinako Shibuno. The 20-year-old from Japan is a rookie on the Japanese LPGA Tour, and when she teed it up at Woburn Golf Club, it was her first time playing a tournament outside of her home country. Before she arrived, Shibuno thought Woburn was a links course (it’s a parkland course). No one considered her a potential winner, not even herself. She came into the week just hoping to make the cut.

But with a final-round 68 that ended with her holing a 20-foot birdie putt on the 18th, Shibuno became an unlikely major champion. She finished at 18-under-par 270, one shot ahead of Lizette Salas.

There was a hole early on that could have derailed this underdog story. Shibuno, who had made four bogeys in three rounds, four-putted the third hole of the final round to make double bogey. That might have set off a sequence of other mistakes, what one would expect of a young player who had never played in a major before, let alone been in contention. Instead, she birdied the next two holes. She faltered again with a bogey on the eighth hole, turned in one-over 37, then played the back nine in five-under 31. For the week, she played the back nine in 18 under.

What also might have unnerved Shibuno was that Jin Young Ko, No. 1 the Rolex Rankings and coming off a win in the Evian Championship the week before, was lurking near the lead the entire final round. It didn’t.

Meanwhile, Salas, paired in the same twosome as Ko, was having one of the greatest rounds of her career. She even had a five-foot birdie putt on the 18th hole that would then have forced Shibuno to make birdie to get into a playoff. But Salas’ birdie attempt lipped out, and she had to settle for a closing 65 and a wait to see if her 17-under total might hold up.

Ross Kinnaird

No one would have been surprised had Shibuno not maintained her composure. But she continued to smile after every shot—her nickname on the JLPGA is Smiling Cinderella—and high-fived some of the many fans she gained this week as she walked between holes. Her routine never changed. She spends very little time over the ball, and her pace never changed through to the end.

The winning putt appeared to have too much speed. She lifted the putter and her left leg as the ball sped to the hole, hit the back of the cup and dropped. She had won the Women’s British Open.

Jan Kruger/WME IMG

The win will change her life. She’s now only the second Japanese golfer, male or female, to win a major, the first being Chako Higuchi, the 1977 KPMG Women’s PGA champion. By winning the Women’s British Open, Shibuno has the option to accept status on the LPGA, effective immediately. Or, she can choose to join the tour in the 2020 season. But for Smiling Cinderella, fortunate to have escaped any clocks striking midnight, she probably isn’t thinking about all of that in the immediate aftermath of her unlikely victory, the stuff of fairytales. And with that back nine and the birdie putt win, the stuff of champions, too.

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By Keely Levins
Lexi Thompson has had a tough few days leading into the AIG Women’s British Open. When they became a tough few days for her fellow competitors, she did her best to apologise on Wednesday.

While at the airport leaving from the Evian Championship in France, Thompson realised she had left her passport in her golf bag, Golf Channel reported. Unfortunately, her bag was in a van with dozens of other LPGA players’ bags, being driven by caddie Ian Wright to Woburn Golf Club in England, site of the British Open. Thompson’s team contacted Wright, who pulled over and waited for roughly three hours for Thompson’s caddie to retrieve the passport, Wright told Randall Mell of Golf Channel.

Because of the wait, Wright missed a ferry he was scheduled to take across the English Channel from France to England. Then he ended up in traffic en route to the course, which is about 50 minutes northwest of London. All told, he arrived at Woburn at about 5 p.m. on Monday. All of those players whose clubs were in the van had missed the opportunity to play a practice round, because by 5 p.m. the course was closed for maintenance.

RELATED: Thompson’s passport issue causes 40 players to miss Women’s British Open practice round, according to Golf Channel report

In a press conference on Wednesday, Thompson spoke about the situation and its aftermath.

“I was freaking out, honestly, that I was going to be stranded here,” Thompson said of realizing her passport was in her bag. “I didn’t realize I was going to cause so much delay with the bags for all the players, and I’m very sorry about that.”

Thompson went on to say that if she was on the reverse end of the situation, she’d be pretty upset, too. Though she knows other players are upset with her, there have not been any direct conversations about it.

“I haven’t talked to many players about it. They haven’t come up to me. I can kind of feel it,” Thompson said. “But I didn’t mean anything by it, and I think everybody that knows me as a person … I didn’t know that was going to happen. I didn’t mean anything by it. But it happened, and I’m very sorry.”

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By Joel Beall
Lexi Thompson had a rough experience at last week’s Evian Championship. Her start to the Women’s British Open isn’t much better.

Thompson, who sounded off about course conditions following a missed cut in France, accidentally left her passport in her golf bag, according to a Golf Channel report. Thompson’s clubs were with 40 other players’ sticks in a rental car travelling from the Evian Resort Golf Club to Woburn Golf Club in England, site of this week’s Open.

Ian Wright, a former caddie for Seve Ballesteros, was in charge of hauling the clubs between major sites. About two hours following departure, he received a call that Thompson’s passport was in the back of his van. Wright told the Golf Channel’s Randall Mell that he pulled over and waited for Thompson’s caddie to retrieve the documentation.

“I think I might have screamed,” Wright told Golf Channel. “I had to drive through the night to get here.”

As he was waiting, Wright had to unpack most of the bags, as he was carrying a full load of equipment. “That van was packed to the hilt,” Wright said. “A mouse couldn’t have found room to live in there.”

After the passport was handed off, Wright had to repack the van, and told the Golf Channel the episode put him back an initial three hours. Unfortunately, his delays did not end there: Because of the stoppage, he missed a ferry to England, and ultimately found himself stuck in rush-hour traffic jams.

As Wright didn’t arrive to Woburn until 5:00 p.m. local time—almost 24 hours after his adventure began—players whose clubs were in his van missed a practice round, as the course closed for maintenance. The players were, however, allowed to hit on the range.

Thompson’s agent told the Golf Channel it was an honest mistake.

“She had no idea retrieving it would cause the delay it did, or that it would impact other players the way it did,” said agent Bobby Kreusle. “She would never have wanted that.”

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