When the final round of the 2014 HSBC Women’s Champions came along, you had to think that this was that day.
It was one which came from nowhere. She had led at the end of each of her first three rounds, with her game serving as a glorious illustration of the various points she had made earlier in the week.
Her short game was meeting with rapturous applause, while the rest of her play was even better than she had indicated. Indeed, one booming drive followed another as she plotted her way round the Sentosa course with a composure which in itself served to keep her rivals in their place.
Going into the final day, she had a one-shot lead over the enduring Angela Stanford and was three clear of Azahara Munoz and Teresa Lu, with Paula Creamer one shot further back.
If there is one hole among the 18 where most would anticipate a hitch, it would have to be the 13th and, sure enough, this 404-yard par-4 turned out to be the start of Webb’s undoing.
Though she caught the left side of the elusive green - it is tucked between the harbour and dense trees - with two impeccable blows, the cheers which greeted her long putt across that slippery putting surface were soon giving way to a sharp intake of breath. The three-footer she had needed for the par missed with room to spare.
It was when her drive at the 15th splashed into the lake that her start-of-the-week description of the 1996 Masters started ringing in this correspondent’s ears.
She had recalled that fateful afternoon when Greg Norman went into the last round with a six-shot lead, only to have the collapse of his golfing lifetime against Nick Faldo.
At that moment when Norman reached the turn with what was still a two-shot lead, Webb had planted her fold-up seat in a position beside the 18th green where she would be well placed to see her compatriot winning his first Masters.
She stayed put until the moment word came that Norman, then two behind with three to play, had hit into the water at the 16th.
At that, she packed up her chair and departed the club at a rate of knots. From that day to this, she and Norman had never discussed what happened. It was all too painful.
Webb’s breakdown was happening in front of a crowd of 14,000 rather than 40,000 but the feelings it invoked were not so very different.
After she had dropped a shot at the 15th, the final straw came at the par-5 18th. She was on the tee at 10-under while Paula Creamer and Spain’s Munoz were on that same figure but safely in the clubhouse.
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