Frenchwoman Celine Boutier is having her best career season on the LPGA Tour and will look to add a fourth title to her 2023 resume on Sunday at the BMW Ladies Championship. After carding rounds of 66 and 72 on Thursday and Friday at Seowon Valley Country Club, the Amundi Evian Championship winner fired a 4-under 68 on Moving Day in the Republic of Korea, a round that saw her make two bogeys and six birdies, and she now sits in a tie for fifth at 10-under, two back of the lead held by Ashleigh Buhai and Minjee Lee.
Boutier birdied right out of the gate on Saturday morning to move to 7-under overall and then made seven consecutive pars before grabbing her second birdie of the day on the par-4 9th hole to turn in 34. The 29-year-old caught fire on the back nine, rattling off three consecutive birdies on holes 12, 13 and 14 and picking up another on the par-3 16th hole, now sitting at 12-under total with two holes to play. Unfortunately, a pair of back-to-back bogeys on 17 and 18 put a damper on the five-time LPGA Tour winner’s back-nine blitz, but she still managed to record a 68 and put herself in contention with 18 holes to go at the BMW Ladies Championship.
“I feel like I played really solid all day and hit a lot of close shots. So I feel like that helped me a lot to score,” said Boutier, who has only missed five greens this week. “The conditions were a little bit less windy, so a little bit more gettable. I feel like I played really steady. My putts didn't drop. I actually had mostly birdies on the back. So, just tried to stay patient.”
This week in the Republic of Korea marks Boutier’s fourth start in the BMW Ladies Championship, and in her three previous appearances, she has never finished better than T26. It’s her 19th event of the 2023 LPGA Tour season, one that has been a banner year for the seven-year veteran, who has picked up three victories and three additional top-five finishes in her 18 starts before this week.
Boutier earned her third career LPGA Tour victory in March at the LPGA Drive On Championship at Superstition Mountain after defeating Georgia Hall in a playoff to become the winningest Frenchwoman in LPGA Tour history. Then, in July, she became the first French player to capture The Amundi Evian Championship in Evian-les-Bains, France, beating defending champion Brooke Henderson by a whopping six shots en route to her first major title. The very next week, Boutier won again at the FREED GROUP Women's Scottish Open presented by Trust Golf, defeating Hyo Joo Kim by two shots to become the first player to win in back-to-back starts on the LPGA Tour since Jin Young Ko won the Cognizant Founders Cup and BMW Ladies Championship in 2021.
A win this week at Seowon Valley Country Club would make Boutier the first player since Ko in 2021 to earn at least four victories in a single season, and she would surpass the $6 million mark in career earnings. She would also pick up a win in her fourth different country this season, and she would become the winningest player on the LPGA Tour in 2023. A victory would also see Boutier move to the top of the Race to CME Globe standings, surpassing Lilia Vu, and would give her 30 valuable points in the Rolex Player of the Year standings, erasing much of the 33-point deficit that stands between her and Vu, who is leading with 166 points.
There will certainly be a lot on the line for Boutier as she works to chase down the leaders and capture her sixth Tour title on Sunday at the BMW Ladies Championship. But the veteran knows better than anyone that anything can happen in the final round of any tournament, and with that in mind, she will just be controlling what she can control and letting the final result come to her, especially considering how much talent there is currently sitting at the top of the leaderboard.
“It's not a tournament until you play 72 holes. Yeah, it's good to put yourself in position, but there's still so much that can happen,” said Boutier. “I just honestly try to stay in the moment. I feel like (there’s) really no point in getting ahead of yourself too much, and I feel like, especially with the quality of the field and the fact that golf is also a game that's a little bit unpredictable, it's best to just be able to focus on what you can manage.”
We have a new leader at the BMW Ladies Championship and what a way to do it!! 👀 @celineboutier pic.twitter.com/gLugWpWQoK
— LPGA (@LPGA) October 21, 2023
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