‘I know the odds’ Céline Boutier plays down chances at Women’s Open
over 2 years in The guardian
Frenchwoman has won her last two outings, including a major, but realises history is against her making it threePredicting the winner of any golf tournament is a hard enough task at the best of times; trying to identify the winner of a women’s major championship right now is proving one of golf’s most elusive goals, a riddle wrapped in an ace inside an albatross. The past 22 majors have produced 21 different champions – only Minjee Lee, at the 2021 Evian Championship and 2022 US Open, has doubled up during that time – and of those 21 players, 17 were first-time major winners. Godspeed your pin as you stick it into the tee sheet before the Women’s Open at Walton Heath.Céline Boutier, who won her first major at the Evian 11 days ago, followed it up last weekend with victory at the Scottish Open. She’s in the form of her life, her long game solid, her approaches dialled in, her flat stick rolling true. She’s the hottest ticket in town – yet the 29-year-old Parisian, aiming to become the first woman to win back-to-back majors since Inbee Park captured the Dinah Shore, PGA and US Open in short order in 2013, isn’t particularly willing to talk up her chances of winning this week’s record $1.35m (£1.06m) winner’s purse. Continue reading...