Karrie Webb: Wind puts the wind up the kids

ADELAIDE, AUSTRALIA - FEBRUARY 19: Karrie Webb of Australia competes during day two of the ISPS Handa Women's Australian Open at The Grange GC on February 19, 2016 in Adelaide, Australia. (Photo by Morne de Klerk/Getty Images)

Karrie Webb slipped into town as quietly as someone as well known as Karrie Webb could possibly do. She even played down her chances of doing much in the Australian Open. You know, 41, a bit scratchy, the kids are so good now, just hanging on for the Olympics, reassess future at the end of the year. She’s replaced her three-iron with a walking stick.

The media helped camouflage her arrival. That’s because the kid was in town. Lydia Ko, the 18-year-old genius from New Zealand. The world’s No 1 golfer was at the Grange Golf Club to defend her title won last year at the world-feared and famous Royal Melbourne.

If Ko didn’t win the Open then Minjee Lee, the 19-year-old Australian, just might. She had a win on the US tour last year and was now ranked 17th. Or Ha Na Jang, 23, and No 9 in the world, who won the LPGA tournament in Florida at the start of the month. Or Catriona Matthew, who has won ... Catriona Matthew? Hang on, she’s 46, one par four short of 50. She and Webb are staying at the same old folks home near the golf course. Go to breakfast in a golf cart.

Yet Webb and Matthew, the Scot ranked 68th in the world, have another Australian Open within their reach after a day of constantly strong and whirling winds blew the games, if not the minds, of some of the best young golfers in the world.

Matthew shares the second-round lead eight-under-par with English woman Holly Clyburn, 25, who has last year’s NSW Open and is playing only her second tournament on the LPGA tour. The pair is one shot clear of Germany’s Caroline Masson, China’s Xi Yu Lin, Korean Jenny Shin and Haru Nomura from Japan.

Matthew won her only Australian Open 20 years ago and Webb is looking to win her sixth. Their experience and steadiness in a wind that required clear heads and strong nerves has them best placed to win this fight with nature.

The cut was heading towards a swollen two-over-par and saw the end of the open for Australian Ladies Masters winner Cheyenne Woods and two-time Australian Open champion Laura Davies. Overnight leader, Korean SooBin Kim, who required just 26 putts in the first round, missed three short putts early in her second round and her only birdie on the front nine came when she holed out from a greenside bunker on the par three eighth hole.

Webb produced a workable one under par 71 yesterday though the short game was a little messy She had 31 putts and only made one of three sand saves. “I was a bit scratchier today (she shot 67 on Thursday). I wasn’t as sharp with my iron play and I still hit 14 greens but didn’t have a lot of decent looks at birdies, so you know I just really hung in there,” she said.

“I don’t think four low scores is going to win this tournament. The course is challenging enough that you’re not going to go out there and shoot mid 60s every day. I just feel like I’m in a good position and I think Sunday is still forecast to be quite breezy and opposite direction wind, so it will be a challenging weekend.”

Matthew made the first substantial push up the board yesterday though her performance was shackled by poor putting, toting up 33 for the round. Matthew, who has won 10 times in the US and Europe including the British Open, handled the Grange and the winds precisely.

A bogey on the second hole (her 11th) after an eagle at the par 5 first was followed immediately by a pair of birdies. She closed in 33. It was her only spurt of scoring for the round.

“When I played my practice round on Tuesday and thought it was a tricky course, you know it’s maybe quite generous off some of the tees but the second shots you’ve really got to try to hit the greens and that’s what I’ve done the first two days,” Matthew said. She followed an opening 67 with yesterday’s 69.

“I mean obviously delighted yesterday, five under in the wind. Today it was still breezy there in the morning so, yep, pleased to have a lot of chances, missed a few putts which I should have holed but I’ll take eight under.”

Matthew was in no mind to talk about her veteran status. “I think that’s the beauty of golf, you know you can play, it doesn’t matter what your age is really as long as you can still hit the golf ball and get it in the hole it doesn’t really matter. Age isn’t a barrier,” she said. “You’re always working on ­something, you’re never happy as a golfer.”

Ko is hardly out of the tournament, shooting a consecutive two-under par 70, but the wind was her master. “In the afternoon I definitely expected it to be windier so I knew it would play tougher but I didn’t exactly know how firm the greens were going to be. And the firmness plays a huge factor but I tried to keep it together. I see there are some lower scores out there so they must have played some pretty superb golf,” Ko said.

Lee all but fell apart and squeezed past the cut after a second round 76 left her at one-over for the open. And Jang proved her game was as clever as it was strong, adding a two-under 70 to a first round 69.

Clyburn had the best round of the day, a seven under par 65. As the last of the afternoon groups pushed off into a wind that was tipped to lose its cool utterly later in day, the 25-year-old joined Masson, who went around just one under par but could add it to first round 66. Masson has had her LPGA card for just two seasons but did win the South African Open in 2012.

Clyburn was three under before you reached for the vegemite. Hitting off at 7.20am she started eagle, birdie. “It was nice (she went around the first nine in 30 strokes). It was six under through nine and you have to settle yourself down because ... you can’t take anything for granted out there. And then to finish with a nice birdie on 18 was important,” she said.

Still, this might be the tournament the winds put the wind up the kids.