Dubai: Felicity Johnson said she knew she could never write off Shanshan Feng going into the final round of the Omega Dubai Ladies Masters at Emirates Golf Club on Saturday.
Johnson started the round in the lead at seven-under par, two strokes clear of day one leader Florentyna Parker, and five strokes ahead of Shanshan, who was two under par at tied for 13.
The 29-year-old Englishwoman even got up to 10-under with a four-stroke lead through five on the final day after overcoming an opening bogie with a birdie, eagle, birdie combination.
But then, she ended the front nine with two bogies and a double bogey to put her back down to six under through nine.
All the while, Shanshan was coming up the leaderboard with four birdies in her opening five holes, to put her at six under through five. The 27-year-old Chinese then birdied nine and added three more birdies on her return to finish with a 64 to win at 10 under par, two strokes clear of Charley Hull.
Johnson could only finish with two bogies at either end of her back nine to finish with a 75 at four-under, tied for seventh. But despite essentially blowing a four-stroke lead, Johnson only had praise for Shanshan.
“Being the player she is, I knew she was always going to be a threat,” she said. “Having come back from five strokes behind overnight is ridiculous, people thought she wasn’t even in contention but she stormed it.
“At one point, I looked at the leaderboard and had a three-shot lead and the next minute I was three behind. I knew I had made a couple of mistakes but I don’t know what her scorecard looked like around the turn, I imagine there were quite a few birdies thrown in there. She just took over me.
“Hats off to Shanshan, that was pretty impressive. I wish I could have made more of a challenge of it around the turn but she went out there and won it today.
“I felt a little bit of deflation because I wasn’t playing as well as I could have done. But then I also had a little smile to myself because I knew she must have been having some round and I appreciated what she was doing.
“Maybe, the rest of us have to play a couple less holes than her to be able to beat her around here. She seems to have got the rights to it at the moment.
“She’s one of the best players in the world. So no, you could never count her out of it.”
This was only Johnson’s second top 10 finish in 13 appearances in Europe this season, so she was eager to reflect upon the positives.
“Probably later when I reflect on it, I’ll be a little more disappointed,” she said of conceding her lead. “But right now, if you take today out of it, this was a good result.
“Any time you make a top 10 finish, you’ve got to be happy. I was glad to put myself in the position I did on Friday. It was a nice feeling to be at the right end of the leaderboard again.
“This hasn’t been a great year both on or off the course, but this was a good way to finish. Yes, it epitomises my year, but now I’ve got positives to take into next season.
“This shows that what I’m working on works really well, old faults may come back under pressure like they did today, but the more you get your habits grooved in and put yourself in more positions like this, the more it will become second nature. I’ll just go back to working on the same things, as it’s a timely process.”
