Golf: Jang Holds Her Nerve and Smile to Upset the Aristocracy

Jeong Jang, paired with Annika Sorenstam for the final round of the British Open, performed like the imperious Swede at her best yesterday as she outplayed the aristocracy of the women's game to secure not just her first major victory but her first tournament victory at all. It was a hugely deserved win, not least because the Korean led the event from start to finish.

Her margin of victory was four shots over Sophie Gustafson, with Young Kim and Michelle Wie, who won the Smyth salver for finishing as the top amateur, another two shots back on 10 under par.

It was an excellent performance from Wie in what is expected to be her last event as an amateur. After a long summer competing against the best of the LPGA tour, the PGA tour and the US amateur circuit, the 15-year-old will return home to Hawaii, where she starts high school on August 25.

"I can't say I am really looking forward to it," she said after completing her round. One date she will be looking forward to is October 13, when she is expected to leave the amateur ranks to join the professional game, possibly playing in the Samsung World Championship - a switch that will enable her to accept prize money (her joint-third-place finish, and the accompanying £62,500, brought her uncollected winnings for the summer to just under £500,000) as well as to sign a $10m sponsorship contract with Nike.

Judging by the blank space on the front of her golf cap Jang, at 25, is not in receipt of much in the way of sponsorship contracts, although that will change now, not least because the women's game is huge in her homeland. "I don't think this will turn me into a superstar in Korea but I'm going there this week, so I guess I'll find out for certain," she said after picking up the £160,000 winner's cheque.

Jang's record at this stage of her career - she has collected numerous top-10 finishes on the LPGA tour - hints that she may not be superstar material but at the very least she deserves a reception committee at Seoul airport.

Given her magnificent ball-striking for most of yesterday's final round, her score of 69, three under par, was the absolute worst she might have returned. It was all the more impressive as she was playing alongside Sorenstam, as well as at the top of a leaderboard crammed with the game's best players - Paula Creamer, Cristie Kerr, Wie and, of course, Sorenstam.

The Swede's presence in the final group had been expected to induce some form of nervous collapse from her less experienced partner but in the end it was Sorenstam who buckled.

"I'm not disappointed at all. I am pretty happy with the way I played all week, even though I didn't finish too good," said Sorenstam, who lost a ball off the final tee to finish with a double bogey. "JJ just played incredibly. I think she would have been very, very hard to catch. My hat is off to her."

A great champion and gracious loser, Sorenstam is also an excellent judge of the game. Jang was well-nigh unbeatable this week, regardless of how well anyone else in the field had played. From the very first ball she struck last Thursday, in the midst of a downpour, she played links golf exactly the way it should be played - with patience and with the understanding that the sometimes great shots do not get the reward they deserve.

"I just felt comfortable on this course right from the very first practice round. I hit my drives very low and my iron shots don't spin very much, and that is what you need on a course like this," she said.

Even so, winning a major championship requires more than low drives and wedge shots that do not spin. It requires nerve, of which Jang appears over-endowed, despite her own protestations to the contrary . "I hardly got any sleep and, when I got to the first tee, I was shaking with nerves," she said, adding that she had spent most of the night playing golf on her Gameboy.

In such circumstances it would have been understandable, but regrettable, if she had crumbled when faced with the reality of having to play the most important round of her life in the company of the world's No1 player. Instead the opposite occurred. She seemed to take inspiration from Sorenstam's presence. Indeed, to give her the highest compliment of all, she even played like the Swede, especially over the front nine holes, when she outshone her playing partner with both the straightness of her driving and the precision of her iron shots.

Only on the greens did the Korean show any kind of vulnerability. She birdied the 1st hole from six feet but thereafter she spurned chance after chance to stretch her lead. Five times in the next eight holes she had putts from eight foot or less and five times she missed. Other players might have become discouraged but Jang simply heeded the advice offered all week by her caddie Les Luark: just smile.

And now Luark, too, has something to smile about: 10% of £160,000 - not bad for a week's work.

Top 10 finishers

Jeong Jang (S Kor) 272 -16

Sophie Gustafson (Swe) 276 -12

Young Kim (S Kor) 278 -10

Michelle Wie (US) 278 -10

Annika Sorenstam (Swe) 279 -9

Cristie Kerr (US) 279 -9

Liselotte Neumann (Swe) 279 -9

Grace Park (S Kor) 280 -9

Louise Stahle (Swe) 280 -9

Natalie Gulbis (US) 280 -9