When Sophie Gustafson captured the Donegal Irish Women's Open at Ballyliffin 20 months ago, she collected a winner's cheque of £15,000. The Swede did considerably better in the Chick-fil-A Championship in Georgia at the weekend, when her breakthrough on the LPGA Tour brought a handsome reward of $135,000. Now 25, Gustafson recovered from a double-bogey at the seventh to put together a string of five birdies in six holes on the way to a 10-under-par total of 206. In fact she had to sink a four-foot birdie putt on the final green for a one-stroke win over Kelly Robbins and Amy Fruhwirth.
At the victory ceremony, there was a touching moment when Nancy Lopez presented Gustafson with the crystal trophy. Aware that the Swede suffers from a serious speech impediment, Lopez told the assembled throng: "Her English is not quite as good as she'd like it to be, so I'm going to talk for her and tell you some of the things she wants to say to you."
Lopez went on to joke that Gustafson "must have stopped breathing" as she closed in on her first victory in the US. Eventually, the winner took the microphone and told the crowd "Thank you". With that, she handed the microphone back to the host and whispered something in her ear.
"Sophie also wants to thank her caddie, Chuck (Hoersch), for doing such a great job." She intends to return to Europe for "three or four tournaments" this summer, but it is not yet certain if these will include the latest staging of the Irish Women's Open.
Now in its seventh year, having been held twice at St Margaret's and then for one year at CityWest, Luttrellstown Castle, Ballyliffin and Letterkenny, it is expected to be played at Faithlegg, outside Waterford City. There was a move to keep it in Donegal for a staging at Bundoran, but the members objected, claiming they had not been given adequate notice.
When she won on the splendid Glashedy Links at Ballyliffin, Gustafson had to withstand 60m.p.h. gales. Indeed it became necessary to reduce the tournament to 54 holes and have a playoff for the title between the Swede and her Danish friend, Iben Tinning.
That victory secured a place for Gustafson on the European Solheim Cup team two weeks later at Muirfield Village, where she halved her singles match against Meg Mallon, while Europe were beaten 16-12 overall.
