Hampshire’s Liz Young fired a final round of 69 at the VP Bank Swiss Ladies Open to secure her first victory on the Ladies European Tour at the age of 39.
The second round at Golfpark Holzhäusern was completed early on Saturday morning with Brockenhurst player holding a one-shot lead heading into the final round.
Despite a bogey on the first, Young, who is in the middle of her 14th season on tour, bounced back with birdies on the third and seventh holes to put her firmly in contention before she got a stroke of luck on the 10th to save par. Two further birdies on 11 and 14 gave her a two-shot lead with four holes to play and a par on the last was enough for her to seal victory.
“I can’t believe it right now! I’ve been out here a while and haven’t had the win yet, so to do it here in Switzerland is just fantastic,” she said. “On the 10th, I hit a good drive off the tee, and it just ran through the fairway into the rough so I couldn’t lift, clean and place and there was a big chunk of mud on the ball. I thought I had got to go for it, it was only a hybrid in my hand and unfortunately the mud curved it millimetres from out of bounds, so I salvaged the par from that and then hit a nice shot on 11 to get the birdie there instead. I tried to keep in the moment, I didn’t look at scoreboards until the 18th because I wanted to keep in the moment and play every shot as best as I can, and we would see what happen.”
Young had enjoyed a solid 2022 before this week, with two top-10s and two further top-15 finishes, and she knew her game was trending in the right direction. “I did feel it coming, I knew my game was good,” she continued. “In Sotogrande I didn’t play well, and I was burnt out, I took two weeks off which I needed and got my game back in shape. I knew my game was coming together and I was getting better and better – that’s why I’m still out here!”
She added: “I said I’d keep playing as long as I enjoy it, and as long as I keep getting better – 14 years later we’re here. I hope my daughter is watching. I have been out here a while and never really been close to a win, but I’ve had some good results in strong field events. To finally get across the line is amazing.”
Four-time LET winner Linn Grant finished in second place after a final round 69. The Swedish star started with birdies on three and five, but then dropped shots on eight and 14 to put her back to level-par for the day. However, the 23-year-old rallied towards the end of her round with three consecutive birdies on 15, 16 and 17, but was unable to find another on the last and finished with a total of 11-under-par.
Londoner Rosie Davies took third place – her best-ever result on the LET – after a final round of 70, while there was a three-way tie for fourth between Ursula Wikstrom, Alexandra Försterling and Manon De Roey. Surrey’s Annabel Dimmock recorded her best result of the season with T7 alongside Amandeep Drall and Charlotte Liautier, while Emma Spitz rounded out the top 10 on seven-under.
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