LPGA pro goes OFF on Sunday to become first Scottish winner in 11 years

The recreation of golf was born in Scotland, however the LPGA Tour had to journey all the way in which to Japan to get its first Scottish champion in over a decade.

Scottish veteran Gemma Dryburgh had a lights-out weekend at this week’s TOTO Japan Classic, firing back-to-back 65s at Seta Golf Club to attain 20 beneath and seize her very first LPGA victory by a four-shot margin.

But it didn’t come simply for Dryburgh, who wanted a heroic stretch over her ultimate 9 holes to take house the title.

Dryburgh began the ultimate spherical one shot off the lead held by Japan’s Momoko Ueda, and the 2 execs traded blows all day lengthy. After 5 holes, Ueda nonetheless led by one, however as soon as the ultimate grouping made the flip, their roles had been reversed, with Dryburgh taking up the slim lead, one shot in entrance of Ueda and Linn Grant.

That’s when Dryburgh actually stepped on the gasoline, making an unbelievable 5 birdies over her ultimate eight holes, together with a stretch of three-straight birdies on holes 13-15 and one ultimate pink quantity on the 18th, to earn a life-changing victory she’ll always remember.

Dryburgh, who’s 29 and was ranked No. 199 in the world earlier than this week, began competing on the LPGA approach again in 2018, however wins have been laborious to come by. Before this weekend’s triumph, she had compiled simply over $400,000 in earnings on the course over her total LPGA profession. On Sunday she almost doubled that whole, taking house a cool $300,000 for her win.

“I can’t (believe it), to be honest. I was in Korea last week with friends and said to them, ‘I will mention you in my speech’ but just as a joke,” Dryburgh told the Scotsman after her win. “It is overwhelming, to be honest. It’s been a dream of mine for a long time and a lot of hard work has gone into this and it means so much as it is a life-changing win.”

The massive victory represents the first by a Scottish participant on the LPGA Tour since Catriona Matthew captured the Lorena Ochoa Invitational again in 2011.

You can take a look at highlights from Dryburgh’s memorable ultimate spherical beneath.

Kevin Cunningham

Golf.com Editor

As managing producer for GOLF.com, Cunningham edits, writes and publishes tales on GOLF.com, and manages the model’s e-newsletters, which attain greater than 1.4 million subscribers every month. A former two-time intern, he additionally helps preserve GOLF.com buzzing exterior the news-breaking tales and repair content material offered by our reporters and writers, and works with the tech crew in the event of recent merchandise and progressive methods to ship a fascinating web site to our viewers.