The Women’s Scottish Open returned to Dundonald Links in 2023 sponsored by the Freed Group.
Following a successful week prior in the Evian Championship whereby French female golfer Celine Boutier triumphed, Boutier was one of the favourite’s going into the event held once again in Ayrshire and did prevail as the overall champion on Sunday.
After a great Wednesday which saw many of the top female golfers take part in a Texas Scramble format pro-am, the main event kickstarted on Thursday. Hinako Shibuno was the clear leader after round one with what would be the best round of golf of the week after shooting an impressive 64 (-8).
The Japanese golfer backed this up the following day with a 68 (-4) on Friday and took pole position going into the weekend. After a bad day on the Links on Saturday, the week prior’s champion Boutier made a moving day statement with a 66 (-6) followed by a 70 (-2) on Sunday to clinch the championship with two-shots to spare and register back-to-back wins.
Despite the in-form French golfer being the eventual winner, she did receive fierce competition over final pairing partners Maja Stark who ended up falling four shots back even with a hole in one at the 6th on the final day. Hyo Joo Kim ended up finishing runner up on -13 for the tournament while Ruoning Yin and A Lim Kim finished 3rd and 4th.
It wasn’t to be for the home nation players as the two Scots who made the cut – Gemma DryBurgh and local Lady Louise Duncan ended up finishing outside of the top 40. Last year’s winner Ayaka Furue from Japan unseccefully defended her championship as she placed in Tied-47 with a total score of +1 for the tournament.
Boutier’s rounds of 69-68-66-70 totalling 273 which was enough to win again by two-shots saw the French golfer pocket $300,000 on a sunny afternoon on Scotland’s west-coast in Scotland.
