Olivia Cowan produced a brilliant final round of 68 (-4) to win the Hero Women's Indian Open to DLF Golf and Country Club and signs its first tournament victory. 4 French women were present at the tournament with a good 6th place for Proceedings Meysonnier who ends (-4) with one of the best cards on the first turn -6 (66), Camille Chevalier and Agathe Sauzon finished in 10th and 12th place respectively.

hero women Indian open

Ladies European Tour 2022. Hero Women's Indian Open, DLF Golf and Country Club, Gurgaon, Delhi, India. Germany's Olivia Cowan poses with her trophy. ©Hero Women's Indian Open

With no less than 27 Top-10 finishes before this week, the German finally entered the winner's circle after a -13 aggregate to win by three strokes against favorite Amandeep Drall (72) and Caroline Hedwall (71), who lost a shot on the 18 to go from the only second to joint second with the Indian.

Olivia Cowan picked up the biggest check of her career at $60.000, while 2011 winner Hedwall was a runner-up for the third time in five appearances at the Hero Women's Indian Open.

Hero women's Indian Open: victory for Olivia Cowan

©Hero Women's Indian Open

After winning her first LET title since arriving on the Tour in 2015, the 26-year-old was very moved by the presentation of the award. She said : “I got close a few times, but I'm very happy to cross the line. I love coming here and it will be one of my most memorable moments and I will be back again to try and win this trophy. »

“I was quite relaxed. To be honest. All weekend. I didn't really think about winning this time around. I just wanted to get out and have a good frame of mind and just play golf. I was playing good golf, so I decided to trust myself and go out today to see what's going on. »

Olivia Cowan's previous two appearances in India produced results of T19 in 2017 and T9 in 2018 and this year her best result on the Tour was T4 in her home event, the Amundi German Masters.

After starting the final round one stroke behind home favorite Drall, they were still a stroke behind and level with Hedwall for the second time. Hedwall birdied the 11th and Cowan birdied the 12th to join Drall on top. The trio playing together moved ahead of the next two holes.

With four holes remaining and three players tied at -11, a play-off seemed imminent, before Cowan punched a crucial birdie on the par-5 15th hole. With Drall bogeying the same hole, Olivia Cowan was the only lead at -12, while Hedwall was at -11 and Drall fell to -10.

From there she didn't look back, as her two opponents struggled to find a birdie, Cowan nearly won the title with another birdie on the dangerous 17 to move to _13, two shots clear. of Hedwall and three ahead of Drall.

But the German took nothing for granted, even with a two-shot lead on the final hole, with the memories of losing a similar lead at Aramco Team Series – Jeddah last year in her mind: “I was aware of what could happen even on the last hole”, she said with a smile.

Olivia Cowan admitted: “The morning before the start, I knew I had a chance because I was only one shot away. But on the course, I was not comfortable or safe until the end, because anything can happen. And I remember what happened to Christine Wolf (in 2018).

“Maybe after the birdie on 17, I felt I could win, but on this course nothing is certain. »

After securing her best result on the LET in T2, Drall was pleased with her week's effort, having provided the home crowd with hope of a second Indian winner of the event after Aditi Ashok in 2016.

She said : “I'm happy with the performance, even though I didn't win. I felt that if putts on the 12th and 13th holes, the first seven-footer and the other nine-footer were crucial. »

“If they had fallen, I would have gained momentum. But overall I'm happy with how I held on and it should improve my ranking and get me into more events. »

It was a great week for the home golfers, who had four players in the top eight with Olympic fourth-placed Ashok (71) in fourth with a -7 score for the week.
Gaurika Bishnoi (73) earned her best result at the Hero Women's Open with a tie for sixth place with Anais Meyssonnier at -4 and Vani Kapoor (69) finished her tenth straight cup of the tournament with a T8 at -3.

The best joint card of the day came from Indian amateur, Avani Prashanth, -5 (67) saw her T-12 finish overall. Two other young Indians, Nishtha Madan (73), who plays on the Epson Tour in the United States, and Hitaashee Bakshi (71), who won the LET pre-qualifier a week ago to enter the final stage of the qualifying school, were tied for 20th.

Thanks to his victory, Cowan moves up to 19th in the 2022 Race at Costa del Sol, with 890,37 points in 13 events.

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