Australian Open: Ha Na Jang finishes top as leaders crumble

South Korea’s Ha Na Jang lifted the Australiuan Open trophy after an eventful day at Royal Adelaide.

Ha Na Jang celebrates after winning the Women’s Australian Open at Royal Adelaide.

You didn’t notice Ha Na Jang at Royal Adelaide this week. Well, that’s not quite right. She smiled a lot, and dressed in snazzy and bright gear. Yesterday her shirt was yellow and visible from the moon.

But the South Korean’s golf wasn’t colourful. Not great, not poor, just average. In her first three rounds she had failed to break 70.

The world No 6 began the final day six-under-par and four shots off the pace set by American Lizette Salas and two shy of Australians Su Oh, Sarah Jane Smith and Thailand’s Pornanong Phatlum.

A final day of strong winds, fast greens and nerves were producing twitches, yanks, shots too short, shots too long, duffed chips and bogeys. Dear God, the bogeys. The place was infested with them. You had to watch where you walked.

Jang stepped on a bogey on the first hole — don’t say we didn’t warn her — but played safely through to the 13th and 14th holes, both of which she birdied. It only moved her to seven-under-par for the tournament but such had been the carnage around the course it pushed her into the lead from Salas, who squashed three bogeys — towel please — from the 12th hole.

Squelch, squelch, squelch.

It wasn’t so much a matter of Jang charging up the board rather the top collapsing in on her.

Jang had the tournament because she was the only player who had gathered a momentum that she was good enough to maintain. Her victory became undeniable when she ran in a monster eagle putt on the par-five 17th, and then hit an iron a step away from the hole on the 18th. Eagle followed by a birdie and a tournament that swung wildly in the wind from day one was effectively over.

Jang had decided to try and take control of the final round from the get-go.

“The first hole I was very nervous on the tee because I want to make birdie at every hole, more aggressive and try that. The second shot was a really big miss, a little topping of my ball and after hole number one it’s really tough day, because every hole par, par, make par and then just I talk to caddie, it’s like, ‘OK, I try just be patient every hole’,” she said.

She finished three shots ahead of Denmark’s Nanna Madsen who — like the marathon runner who joins in halfway through — suddenly jumped into everyone’s consciousness and tournament contention. And to do that she needed to shoot nothing but an even-par 73.

Tied on six-under were world No 2 Ariya Jutanugarn of Thailand, Australians Minjee Lee and Sarah Jane Smith, and defending champion Haru Nomura.

Salas, whose parents are Mexican immigrants, has said some uncomplimentary things about Donald Trump on social media. (That’s pretty hard to believe.)

She did everything possible to lose the trophy yesterday.

She did not play well but she played better than a lot of the women for a lot of the day and only gave up the top of the leaderboard when she bogeyed and Jang birdied the 12th and 13th holes.

Australians Lee, Smith, Hannah Green and Su Oh had fine tournaments in spiteful conditions. Green, 20, shot a final two-under-par 71 for an overall finish of five-under and Oh, also 20, found the conditions overbearing and played the last 18 in four-over-par for a four-under finish.

Oh, who will become the second highest-ranked Australian after Lee and ahead of Karrie Webb, has made significant alterations to her bag of golfing consultants. She has changed coaches and her swing is now being shaped and massaged by Cameron McCormick, who looks after Jordan Speith’s game. Her bag is being toted by the experienced caddie Shaun Clews. Things are looking very serious: and balanced and stable.

Salas could not have got off to a worse start if she had gone to the wrong course. Her opening-hole bogey shrank her overnight lead to one and gave all those about her on the scoreboard the knowledge that she, too, was more toey than a centipede.

Thailand’s Pornanong Phatlum birdied the first and she was in the joint lead with Salas. And it was just starting to get silly.

On the sixth she had a wretched sandy, grassy lie just outside the greenside pot and had to slip a lob wedge under it. Plop it went into the pot and double bogey followed.

World No 1 Lydia Ko finished two-over for the tournament but, as always, found positives in her tie for 46th position.

Ko said: “I hit my driver really well and that was the biggest thing that I was struggling with towards the end of my year last year. It was great to be confident and be able to hit those fairways, especially with the wind this week, it wasn’t easy to hit them.

“Yeah, a lot of positive signs. Hopefully by next week it will be polished. I think there were a lot of positives this week and that’s what I’ve got to take moving forward to the next couple of weeks.”

As for Salas she found it devastating. “I’m just going to say it’s disappointing. I don’t really have any words other than it was pretty bad,” she said.

“I mean, I stayed patient, I wasn’t dramatic, I wasn’t trying to force anything. It’s just my ball didn’t find the hole today. I had some bad swings that cost me a stroke and I couldn’t find a rhythm.

“After I had those two birdies in a row (nine and 10) I thought I had it back, but three-putting is not going to win the tournament. The fact that I had two back-to-back (bogeys) is very disturbing, but I finished strong, you know, par-par even though I wanted to birdie 17.

“But Ha Na played great today. You expect your competitors to play great on Sunday and that’s what she did. I just didn’t have it today,” Salas said.

Oh did not try to hide her disappointment. When it was suggested to her that, like buses, another tournament will come around she said wisely: “Well one day they won’t ... next week I have another event and the one after that, too.

“I’ve got five more events in the next six weeks. It’s disappointing but don’t get too sookie, and pick myself up ...”