2023 Evian Championship: final round – live | Golf

Just (!) a par four for Celine Boutier on 6. She looks disappointed after letting a 15-foot birdie putt slide off to the right, but surely would have taken that result after the wayward tee shot. A fine second powered into the heart of the green saved her bacon. In any case, her lead is now six, because Nasa Hataoka misses the green with her approach, duffs a chip, and can’t save her par with a putt from the fringe. Hataoka suffered a torrid final round at Pebble Beach in this year’s US Open, going into it leading only to shoot a dream-wrecking 76; more Sunday disappointment appears to be on the cards right now.

-14: Boutier (6)
-8: Lopez (9), Lee (6), Henderson (6), Hataoka (6)

Gaby Lopez birdies 9. But for that bobble on 7, she’d be hitting the turn in 30 strokes. Still, a front nine of 31 represents fine work, a six-shot improvement on yesterday. She grabs a share of third alongside Brooke Henderson and Minjee Lee at -8. Meanwhile there’s a new clubhouse leader in Atthaya Thitikul, who comes home in 30 strokes for a 65 to end the week at -5. The 20-year-old Thai is surely a major champion of the future, with top-five finishes at the Evian, the PGA and the Dinah Shore already on her resumé. Her last six holes today: 3-3-3-3-3-4. Three birdies and an eagle. What a talent!

The chasing pack have to make a move soon, or they’ll be wholly dependant on Boutier slipping up. A glimmer of hope for them as the leader’s drive at 6 finds the thick rough down the left. Meanwhile up on the green, Minjee Lee sticks her approach to four feet and tidies up for a birdie that brings her into a tie for third … only to send her tee shot at the par-five 7th into the trees on the left.

-14: Boutier (5)
-9: Hataoka (5)
-8: Lee (6), Henderson (6)
-7: Lopez (8)

“GET IN!” A holler from the gallery as Celine Boutier pours in a birdie putt from 15 feet on 5. Just the par for Nasa Hataoka and the home favourite is five clear. She nearly allows a little smile to play across her face, but fights it. She’s not taking anything for granted. But this tournament is hers to lose now.

-14: Boutier (5)
-9: Hataoka (5)
-8: Henderson (5)
-7: Lopez (8), Lee (5)

Jennifer Kupcho cards 66 to post an early clubhouse lead of -4. A second round of 75 proved costly for last year’s Dinah Shore champion. Meanwhile the leader keeps on keepin’ on, firing a dart at the flag at the par-three 5th. She’s inscrutable at the best of times, and is calmness personified right now. You wouldn’t know she’s fighting for her first major championship.

Boutier’s birdie putt on 4 oscillates along its line. A gentle side-to-side wobble. It looks like dropping, but slides right at the last and lips out. Just a par. Two careful putts for Hataoka as well. Meanwhile bogey for Yuka Saso on 6, the result of a wild drive. The 2021 US Open champion slips back to -5. There’s a little bit more separation at the top now.

-13: Boutier (4)
-9: Hataoka (4)
-8: Henderson (5)
-7: Lopez (8), Lee (5)
-5: Khang (15), Borge (7), A Kim (6), Saso (6)

Boutier sends her second at 4 wide left of the green, but she knows what she’s doing. It’s the smart miss. The hill sends the ball kicking 90 degrees to the right, and the camber of the green gathers it to 15 feet. She’ll have a decent look at birdie. Hataoka meanwhile lands her approach on the dancefloor, but she’s not getting such a significant kick right from there, and her ball stops softly, a good ten feet outside her playing partner.

Small Margins dept. Gaby Lopez rolls a birdie effort straight at the hole from 15 feet on the par-five 7th. It looks all the world like her fourth birdie of the round already, but the ball takes a bobble halfway along its route and the loss of energy does for the putt. It stops short and it’s just a par. That’s awful luck. She remains at -7 and these are the little things that can decide the destiny of major titles.

The defending champion Brooke Henderson makes her first move of the day. She rolls in a 25-foot left-to-right curler on 4 to move into third spot at -8. Back up on the tee, the leader Celine Boutier cracks a drive down the fairway. Nasa Hataoka flirts with a bunker down the right but her ball stops in the first cut and will be absolutely fine.

Hataoka chips up to six feet and leaves herself an uphill putt. She pours it into the centre of the cup to save her par. Boutier also lobs to six feet, but she’s got a slight dribbler coming downhill. No matter, though, because she guides the left-to-right slider into the hole and her impressive start continues. Par.

-13: Boutier (3)
-9: Hataoka (3)

Boutier doesn’t really take advantage of her good break down the left of 3. Another yard to the left and she’d have been in all sorts of knee-high bother, but she’s landed on some relatively short grass. But her second takes a flyer and bounds over the back of the green. Hataoka whistles her second into the heart of the green but it bounds off down a swale to the right of the green. Both players in the final group have some work to do to get up and down for their par.

Nelly Korda shot a fine 64 yesterday, but she’s moving in the wrong direction today. A second bogey of the day already, this time at 4, and the 2021 PGA champion is quickly falling out of contention.

Boutier will probably have to stumble if the chasing pack is to have any chance. She pulls her tee shot at 3 towards trouble on the left, but her ball rests between a bunker and some extremely long grass. She might have got away with that, but she peers after it with concern etched across her face anyway. Hataoka finds the short stuff.

Only one other player has started birdie-birdie like Boutier today, and that’s Gaby Lopez, who now makes a third birdie of the day, this time at 6. The 29-year-old Mexican, who has never really featured in the majors before, is right in this at -7.

Nasa Hataoka is this close to making another birdie, at the par-three 2nd. Her tee shot isn’t worth writing home about, but she tickles a 40-footer down the slope and her ball shaves the left lip. But there’s no mistake from Celine Boutier, who drains a putt of similar distance, a gentle right-to-left slider, and it’s a birdie-birdie start!

-13: Boutier (2)
-9: Hataoka (2)

Should Boutier win today, she’ll become the first French winner of the Evian. She’d also become just the third French woman to win a major championship, after Patricia Meunier-Lebouc, who won the Dinah Shore in 2003, and Catherine Lacoste, who won the US Open as an amateur in 1967. She’d also become the 21st different winner of a major in the last 22 tournaments! The only player to double up during that period: 2021 Evian and 2022 US Open champion Minjee Lee, who is very much in the hunt for her third major title today.

A fast start for Celine Boutier! Having split the fairway with her opening tee shot, she sends a gentle draw into the heart of the green and then rolls in the ten-foot putt that remains. The home crowd, desperate for a maiden French victory in this tournament, roars its approval. She moves to -12 … though Nasa Hataoka remains on her heels by making a carbon-copy birdie herself. That’s a big message sent to the rest of the field.

-12: Boutier (1)
-9: Hataoka (1)
-7: Henderson (1), Lee (1)

The final match takes to the tee, so this is very much on. The leader Celine Boutier crashes a drive down the middle of 1, and Nasa Hataoka follows her. It’s a sunny but very blustery day at the Evian Resort Club, where a few players have made some early moves. Gaby Lopez is two under for her round through 4, having birdied the opening two holes. Kim A-Lim has birdied 2. Kim Su-ji had reached the turn in 31 blows, with birdies at 1, 5, 7 and 9, but has bogeyed 10 to lose a little of that early momentum. An opening bogey for Nelly Korda, though. Here’s the revised leaderboard.

-11: Boutier
-8: Hataoka
-7: Henderson (1), Lee (1)
-6: Lopez (4), A Kim (2), Saso (2)
-5: Korda (2)
-4: S Kim (10), Borge (4), Dryburgh (4), Vu (3), Yin (3)

Preamble