DUBAI // Felicity Johnson put herself in pole position to win the Omega Dubai Ladies Masters, then had to settle for a tie for seventh.
The Englishwoman, who last tasted victory way back in 2011, was the overnight leader of the abbreviated 54-hole tournament going into Saturday’s final round and soon stretched that advantage to four shots, but she dropped five strokes in four holes to slide down the field.
It meant the wait for win No 3 on the Ladies European Tour rumbles on, although Johnson was commendably upbeat afterwards, all things considered. Maybe it was just that a disappointing 2016 had finally drawn to a close.
“I’ve kind of wanted this year to end,” said Johnson, whose season, Dubai included, contained two top-10s in Europe and a slew of missed cuts on the LPGA in America. “On and off the golf course it hasn’t been a great year, so to finish this way, it does epitomise it, but there’s some positive stuff to take into a fresh season.”
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Much like her campaign, there had been flecks of light amid the gloom, however fleeting. Johnson fired a blemish-free eight-under par 64 on Friday to take a two-shot lead into the final round — a clear sign she is beginning the reap the rewards of improvements made to her game.
After bogeying her opening hole on Saturday, she then responded with two birdies and an eagle in the next four, only to leak serious oil in the desert. It meant Johnson eventually signed for a 75 to come home six shots behind Shanshan Feng, who racked up an astonishing fourth Dubai victory.
Yet, for the most part, Johnson was happy with how she coped with the strain of being the one everybody else was shooting at.
“I felt OK out there,” she said. “It’d been a while. Getting off to a nice start obviously makes it a little bit easier and I’d opened up a little bit of a lead, but hats off to Shanshan: 64 out there today is pretty impressive.
“Maybe I could have made a bit more of a challenge of it around the turn, but she went out and won it today. I didn’t make too many mistakes, but just in the wrong places at the wrong time.”
Johnson attributed the breakdown to bad habits creeping back in under pressure, evidenced through holes seven to 10, when she carded three bogeys and one double-bogey. All she could do is watch the scoreboards as Feng, stationed a few groups behind, pulled away from her and the field. But, all in all, it feels like there is much to look forward to.
“Obviously you’ve got to be happy with a top 10 any week,” Johnson said. “I got myself into the position I did yesterday and was it a nice feeling again to be at the right end of the leaderboard.
“It’ll probably kick in a little bit later. Right now, the season’s gone. It’s been a positive finish, take today out of it. The result‘s a good finish, so give me until tonight when I’m sitting down reflecting, or maybe on the flight home tomorrow I’ll be thinking a little more and be more disappointed.
“But right now it’s OK. So just go back and work on the same things. It works, it’s just a timely process.”
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