After 27 top-10 finishes since turning professional in 2015, Olivia Cowan finally broke her title-jinx in style on the Ladies European Tour on Sunday.
The 26-year-old German sank the final putt for an impressive three-stroke margin over the duo of 2011 champion Caroline Hedwal and crowd favourite Amandeep Drall to claim the winner’s share of $60,000 from the $400,000 Hero Women’s Indian Open golf tournament here on Sunday.
Starting the final round a stroke behind Amandeep, Olivia fired five birdies against a lone bogey while maintaining a flawless back-nine.
“I have come close a few times, but I am so happy to get over the line. I love coming here and this is going to be one of my most memorable moments and I will come back again to try and win this Trophy again.”
Hedwel, who has had three runner-up finishes here, looked like making a charge to regain the title after a hat-trick of birdies on the front-nine wiped out her two successive bogeys. But on the back-nine, her approach shots let her down for a 71.
Amandeep, the overnight leader by a stroke, produced her best finish on the LET aftera par round.
She held sole lead on the ninth and 10th holes at 11-under, but could not carry on with her good work. Hedwall caught up with her on the 11th before Olivia made it a three-way tie on the 12th hole.
The three leaders pared the 13th to stay at 11-under but things changed from the 14th hole. Amandeep dropped a shot to slip to 10-under and on the 15th, Olivia birdied 15th and 17th to move to 13-under.
On the 18th, Hedwal’s bogey cost her $6000, since that came Amandeep’s way as joint runners-up collected $30,000 each.
Leading final scores: 275 - Olivia Cowan (Ger) (71, 71, 65, 68); 278 - Caroline Hedwall (Swe) (68, 71, 68, 71), Amandeep Drall (67, 72, 67, 72); 281 - Aditi Ashok (70, 71, 69, 71); 282 - Ana Pelaez Trivino (Esp) (69, 76, 67, 70); 284 - Anais Meyssonnier (Fra) (66, 78, 68, 72), Gaurika Bishnoi (72, 71, 73, 69); 285 - Vani Kapoor (72, 71, 73, 69), Elina Nummenpaa (Fin) (70, 75, 69, 71).
Other Indians: 287 - Avani Prashanth (A) (75, 76, 69, 67); 289 - Hitaashee Bakshi (73, 74, 71, 71), Nishtha Madan (72, 73, 71, 73); 292 - Neha Tripathi (74, 72, 74, 72); 293 - Anika Varma (A) (75, 73, 71, 74); 295 - Diksha Dagar (73, 75, 72, 75); 298 - Vidhatri Urs (A) (74, 72, 74, 78); 300 - Ridhima Dilawari (77, 72, 77, 74), Asmitha Sathish (74, 76, 77, 73); 301 - Tvesa Malik (69, 79, 77, 76), Seher Atwal (73, 79, 75, 74).
