AYRSHIRE, Scotland — There’s just no stopping Celine Boutier. Fresh from her maiden major victory in the Evian Championship seven days ago, the Frenchwoman added the Freed Group Women’s Scottish Open trophy to her mantelpiece here at sunny Dundonald Links.
At this rate, even those Just Stop Oil protesters would have trouble disrupting Boutier’s glory-laden run. With the AIG Women’s Open next on the schedule this week, what are the chances of a shimmering triple whammy?
“Oh, my gosh,” she gasped with a chuckle when asked about that possibility by the mischievous golf writers. “I think if I win again, I may just retire.”
This latest victory, the fourth by a French player in the Women’s Scottish Open, was not without drama but, in the end, it was a comfortable conquest. A lay-up down the last and a couple of canny putts in a closing 2-under 70 gave Boutier a 15-under aggregate and a two-shot victory over the fast-finishing Hyo-Joo Kim of Korea with China’s Ruoning Yin taking third on 12 under.
Celine Boutier celebrates winning the 2023 Women’s Scottish Open at Dundonald Links Golf Course in Troon, Scotland. (Photo: Octavio Passos/Getty Images)
Boutier, runner-up in this event at Dundonald a year ago, enjoyed team success on Scottish soil back in 2019 when she won four matches out of four during a thrilling Solheim Cup debut at Gleneagles. This individual triumph, though, ticked a sizeable box on her career to-do list.
“Winning in Scotland, in the home of golf, is just amazing as it’s been on my bucket list,” she said.
The magnitude of Boutier’s major moment in her native land a week ago took a considerable physical and emotional toll. Backing up a victory like that with another win takes some doing.
“This win feels a bit unexpected just because I won last week,” she admitted. “The odds of me winning this week would have been pretty high so I am just in shock and incredibly grateful.”
Boutier had led by three strokes from Thailand’s Patty Tavatanakit and Maja Stark of Sweden going into the final day. Tavatanakit made an early statement with a birdie on the first hole but it was going to take more than that to ruffle Boutier’s feathers. Stark, meanwhile, saw her ambitions suffer a hefty dunt with a double-bogey on the fourth.
A couple of holes later, though, she was celebrating a hole-in-one when her wedge to the sixth bounced into the cup and injected her push with back-slapping, high-fiving vigour.
Boutier was…
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