AYRSHIRE, Scotland — Celine Boutier is riding such a wave of confidence these days, you half expected her to march up the 18th at Dundonald Links whistling a jolly tune of surfing satisfaction by the Beach Boys.
A week on from her maiden major victory in the Evian Championship, the Frenchwoman is on course for a notable double whammy of triumphs as she forged a sturdy advantage on the penultimate day of the Freed Group Women’s Scottish Open.
A composed, classy and clinical performance led to a 6-under 66, a 13-under total and a three-stroke lead over Thailand’s Patty Tavatanakit and Maja Stark of Sweden.
Seven days ago on the shores of Lake Geneva, Boutier led by three after 54-holes and went on to win by six. Here on the Firth of Clyde, her latest three-stroke lead could prompt another procession to a coronation.
There is a lot of golf to be played, of course, but in this particular parish, Boutier, last year’s runner-up, is in her element. This was her seventh consecutive round in the 60s at Dundonald. Her position of authority at the summit is so fortified, her name on the leaderboard could be shielded by a portcullis.
The home of golf certainly brings out the best in Boutier. Four years ago at Gleneagles, she won four out of four during a thrilling Solheim Cup debut to help Europe claim a famous victory. Here in 2023, individual glory beckons in the game’s cradle.
It was one of those days when all the golfing cogs and pistons were working and finely tuned. “Sometimes you envision shots and they don’t always happen,” said Boutier. “But today, it happened the way I saw it.”
When she did make the odd deviation from the straight and narrow, Boutier took the positives from it. “I made a bogey on the ninth, which actually fired me up,” she added. “It was nice to get some more energy going.”
Boutier had been five shots off the halfway pace set by Japan’s Hinako Shibuno but she chomped into that deficit with gusto. Four birdies on her first seven holes had her bounding along nicely as Shibuno stumbled and stuttered. Stark, the 23-year-old who was leading the chasing pack after 36-holes, would take up the front-running and did briefly move into a two-shot lead before her round unravelled on the run-in.
Shibuno, a wonderful Women’s British Open champion at Woburn back in 2019, endured a trying day, meanwhile, and a double-bogey on the short 15th prompted a pained grimace from the woman known as the Smiling Cinderella. It…
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