Shin holds off charging Tseng to win Australian
Jiyai Shin of South Korea beat out No. 1 world-ranked Yani Tseng to win the Australian Women's Golf Open by two shots Sunday in Canberra, Australia.
Shin fired a 1-under par 72 to also hold off 15-year-old amateur Lydia Ko, with whom she shared the third round lead.
Shin birdied three times in the final round as Ko struggled with a final round of 76. Tseng gained on Shin with a 66, the best round of the day, after starting off eight strokes out of the lead.
It was Shin's 11th LPGA victory. That also includes a pair of British Open titles.
"Finally I win in Australia so I'm really happy about," she said. "I was so nervous this morning because this course, I had a good chance for birdie but also a lot of hard (work) to keeping the par."
Ko started off with a double bogey and bogey but rallied to share the lead again with Shin at No. 13. However, Shin birdied on 14 and 15 while Ko had bogeys on 14 and 17.
While Tseng was unable to catch Shin, she did beat out Ko for second place by two shots.
"I always feel good here and I tried my best today," Tseng said. "I think today I got some pretty good lucky bounces too. I didn't drive as well like the last few days, but I got some good bounces, kicks on the fairway, hit a tree, bounced to the fairway, so it's kind of really lucky.
"To finish 7 under, I'm very happy for the whole week."
Overall, Shin finished with an 18-under 274. Tseng's 66 for the day got her to 16-under and Ko finished at 14-under.
"Third in a professional tournament is a pretty good result and I can't say I'm not fully pleased," Ko said. "I was disappointed with how I played today, but in some respects it was good."
