Jodi Ewart Shadoff was delighted with her blemish-free final round 64 as she finished runner-up in the Ricoh Women’s British Open at Kingsbarns.
The 29-year-old from Northallerton currently plays on the LPGA Tour in the US and her performance in Scotland was a massive boost on the eve of her second Solheim Cup appearance.
She trailed In-Kyung Kim by a full nine shots going into the final round but then posted her lowest round of the year so far.
It wasn’t enough to stop In-Kyung Kim securing a maiden major title by two shots but it did confirm her place in the Solheim Cup at Des Moines and she was buoyed by her return to form after missing the cut the previous week at the Ladies Scottish Open.
“My confidence wasn’t that high coming into Kingsbarns,” said Jodi, “So it’s been a huge shift of confidence for me.”
She made five birdies in a row from the sixth, equalled the course record set by Michelle Wie earlier in the week and raised hopes of a major title around the corner.
“Starting the day, I didn’t think I would have a shot,” she added. “In-Kyung was way ahead and I just started out really strong. I holed a great putt for par on the first, which I think set the tone for the day. And then my putting was really on fire.
“I had a great stretch in the middle of the round to get me going. I knew coming down the stretch that I was somewhere in the vicinity of a win, and I just need to put myself into that position more often. That’s what I’ve been doing and hopefully in the next few weeks I’ll finally get a win.”
Jodi now lives in Florida with her husband Adam, who is a television sports presenter, and she does have a touch of a transatlantic twang, having attended college in New Mexico and remaining in the USA ever since.
But she is still very much at home in Middleham, the horse racing town where her father, Harvey, works classic-winner Mark Johnston and her mother Zoe, who is also involved with horse racing and where she learned her golf playing at Catterick.
