AYRSHIRE, Scotland – Coming off winning her first career major last week in her home country of France, Duke graduate Celine Boutier won her second straight LPGA event on Sunday as she claimed the FREED GROUP Women’s Scottish Open at the Dundonald Links in Ayrshire, Scotland.
After firing a 66 on Saturday to surge into the individual lead at 13-under-par, Boutier carded a final round of 70 to shoot 15-under, 273, to win by two strokes over Hyo Joo Kim (275).
“I don’t even think I could have dreamt that it would happen but yeah, I mean, it’s just been amazing to be able to play that well and I feel like to even have the chance to be in contention in the weekend this week was a complete bonus,” said Boutier. “To be able to hold the trophy again this week has been pretty insane.”
On Sunday, Boutier started steady, recording five-straight pars until carding her first birdie on No. 6 and added one more on nine to take a three-stroke lead at the turn. She would record a birdie on 13 thanks to a solid 12-foot putt, but was shaken a bit after bogeys at 14 and 16 brought the field within range. But Boutier kept her head up, notching her last birdie of the day on 17 to collect the win.
“I was definitely nervous,” said Boutier. “It’s tough to win out here and to be able to have the chances is always a little bit nerve-wracking. I feel like you always want to do your best but sometimes you can try to force it a little bit too much. Definitely after my first bogey, I kind of was a little bit disappointed of how it happened, just that three-putt was kind of stupid. There were some tough shots and I feel like it’s going to happen. I’ve been playing really good golf and sometimes my standard get way too high I guess but it is normal to make bogeys, so definitely tried to calm down a little bit and just try to go back to playing and hitting shots.”
With the $300,000 winner’s check, Boutier has earned $2,051,834 this season and $5,802,732 for her LPGA Tour career. Boutier became the first LPGA golfer since Ariya Jutanugarn in 2016 to win a major and then the tournament after, as well as the first to win back-to-back tournaments since Jin Young Ko claimed victories at the 2021 Cognizant Founders Cup and BMW Ladies Championship.
Boutier now heads into the final major championship of the year at the AIG Women’s Open a…
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