Laura triumphs in Austria again

Laura Davies fired a closing 70 on Sunday to win the UNIQA Ladies Golf Open in Austria for the third time.
Laura Davies fired a closing 70 on Sunday to come from behind and win the UNIQA Ladies Golf Open in Austria.
It was her 75th career victory and third at the same event at Golf Club Foehrenwald in Wiener Neustadt after wins in 2007 and 2008.
She was also second in 2009.
It was aslo her third win of the season after victories in New Zealand and Germany and she finished with an 11-under 205 total, one ahead of Virginie Lagoutte-Clement from France.
The win came right down to the last hole, which Davies birdied after playing a magnificent shot out of the greenside bunker to six feet and sinking the putt.
Despite having won so many titles, she revealed that she was nervous.
Davies said: “I was shaking. It’s your legs; your legs go. If your hands and your arms go then you’re in trouble but you feel your legs getting a bit shaky. Over that bunker shot, with all the water behind, my legs were a bit shaky on that and over the putt but I guess that’s just the adrenaline and you’re just excited about trying to win a golf tournament. If you didn’t have that then you wouldn’t win.”
Davies entered the final round a stroke behind compatriot Melissa Reid, who closed with a 73 to share third with Alison Walshe of the United States, shot 67.
Reid was tied with Davies with a hole to play and in an almost identical spot in the bunker but three putted for a bogey to slip behind Lagoutte-Clement.
Davies explained: “It was very hard work. The conditions were much more difficult than the first two days and obviously the competition was really tough out there. There was a lot of players playing well. Mel and I tried to get clear of everybody and we never could so it was right down to the wire.”
With this win Davies became the Ladies European Tour’s oldest winner aged exactly 46 years and 11 months and she now hopes to top the Henderson Money List for the eighth time in her career by the end of the year.
“That’s why I’m playing a lot of tournaments,” she said. “This is my seventh straight tournament and then I’m playing in France and Spain the next two weeks because I would love to do well on the Henderson Money List and obviously I have some ground to make up. Today was a good start.”
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