In-form Celine Boutier jokes about 'retiring' if she can make it three wins in a row

She’s on a roll. A week after landing her maiden major win in the Evian Championship, Celine Boutier is the new Freed Group Women’s Scottish Open champion. And she is now eyeing an incredible hat-trick in the AIG Women’s Open, which starts on Thursday.

Celine Boutier with the trophy after winning the Freed Group Women's Scottish Open presented by Trust Golf at Dundonald Links. Picture: Octavio Passos/Getty Images.

“Oh, my gosh,” said the 29-year-old Frenchwoman of teeing up that exciting opportunity in the season’s final major at Walton Heath in Surrey. “Yeah, that would be completely unreal. I think if I win again, I may just retire!”

She was joking, of course, but, on the evidence of her endeavours over the past two weeks, Boutier could well complete the best run in the game since Rory McIlroy won The Open, a World Golf Championship and the PGA Championship in a row in 2014.

On a glorious sunny day on the Ayrshire coast, Boutier’s run of seven consecutive scores in the 60s on the challenging Kyle Phillips-designed course ended as she signed off with a 70. She’d started out with a three-shot cushion, though, and, 12 months after she’d be denied by a sensational closing 62 when finishing second to Japan’s Ayaka Furue at the same venue, it was job done thanks to a 15-under-par 273 total.

“It’s definitely an amazing feeling,” she said of recording a two-shot success over fast-finishing Hyo-Joo Kim, the Korean having closed with a joint-best-of-the-day 65. “I feel like winning in Scotland has definitely been on my bucket list. You know, to win a tournament at the home of golf is just amazing.”

Boutier, who now has five LPGA triumphs to her name, was one of the stars for captain Catriona Matthew in European’s thrilling Solheim Cup win at Gleneagles in 2019, but, this triumph, which is expected to see her climb from fourth to third in the Rolex Women’s World Rankings, was just as special.

“It is so unexpected just because I won last week,” added the Montrouge woman who now lives in Dallas. “Because of that, the odds of me winning this week would have been pretty high, so I am just incredibly in shock and very grateful.”

While Swede Maja Stark, one of her playing partners, turned up the heat, delighting the crowd in the process, by making a hole-in-one with a pitching wedge at the sixth and Kim, along with China’s Ruoning Yin and Koren A Lim Kim with matching 66s to finish third and fourth respectively, all produced late challenges, Boutier was always in control in the closing circuit.

Admittedly, her lead had been reduced to one shot after a sloppy three-putt bogey at the par-5 14th was followed by another dropped shot at the 16th, though, in between, her up and down from a tricky spot at the back of the green at the short 15th was hugely significant, as was the birdie putt she then rolled in from around 30 feet at the 17th to give herself some breathing space heading up the par-5 18th.

With its burn snaking around the front and gobbling up anything leaked to the right, there was no danger of her going for the green in two and a solid par to finish was duly followed by her second soaking in champagne on successive Sundays from fellow players.

“To be honest, I tried not to think about it,” said Boutier, who joined Gwladys Nocera (2008), Virginie-Lagoutte Clement (2010) and Isabelle Boineau (2016) in becoming French victors in this event, of trying to back up that major breakthrough on home soil. “I was just so tired earlier in the week and was just trying to get through each round and just do my best.

“To be in contention over the weekend and especially today was a bonus. I tried not to think about things too much and just tried to give myself another chance to win.”

Especially with those majors having come thick and fast over the past few weeks, it surprised some that she teed up at all at Dundonald Links on this occasion. “I was always planning on coming,” she insisted, “though it was definitely a bit more challenging physically than I thought. But I’m obviously happy I came.”

For the second year running, Gemma Dryburgh picked up the Jock MacVicar Trophy as the leading home player, finishing four shots ahead of Louise Duncan. “Today was so-so,” said Dryburgh of her closing 74 after jumping up the leaderboard on the back of a 68 on Saturday. “I felt like I played quite well but just didn't hole anything. Didn't get any of the breaks, but, overall, it was a good weekend. Still enjoyed it.”

Three spots up for grabs in the AIG Women’s Open went to Dane Nicole Broch Estrup, Australian Sarah Kemp and Thai Arpichaya Yubol.