Anne Van Dam - © Tristan Jones / LET

Van Dam was three strokes behind Nanna Koerstz Madsen after the third round and the Dane was still one step ahead when she reached the 18th tee. However, the wind picked up forcing Madsen to play an aggressive shot that ended his run to the left of the fairway into the lake achieving a double Bogey.

The Dutchwoman used her 4-iron to hit the fairway, before playing to the green and finishing with a 60cm putt for the par that sealed her second win of the 2019 season, following her previous ActewAGL win. Canberra Classic.

" I did not expect that " said Van Dam, 24, who won his third trophy in Spain, following the titles of the Estrella Damm Mediterranean Ladies Open and the Andalucía Costa del Sol Open de España in 2018.

“It's golf. It was a crazy day. If you had told me at the start of the day that two cents a par is enough to win, I would have said, ok, I'll take it! It was a different day with more difficult conditions, a bit of wind and it was really cold towards the end. "

“Nanna is a good friend of mine and I would have liked to beat her in the play-off; it would have been a better feeling for me, but it's golf. She took more risks playing the driver off the tee and I've been doing my iron starts all week. ”

Van Dam, the longest hitter on the LET and LPGA tours in 2019, removed her driver from her golf bag for the tournament, but admitted that she couldn't wait to be with him again: “I'm not sure we're going to continue down this path, because I love hitting the driver, but it was a different week and I didn't really need a driver this week. I just went with my plan, although it was sometimes difficult to only hit the wood-3. It was a game plan that we came up with this week and that has paid off. I had a 3-iron and 4-iron that I could use off the tee as well as a 5-wood and 3-wood so I had a lot of options on the tees and I think that has paid."

Van Dam had a score of 13 under par at La Quinta Golf and Country Club having already won the title 12 months ago, winning by three strokes in advance. A final 70 (-2) lap in the breeze was enough to seal the title once again, with a total of 275, 13 under par.

Madsen was second with Aditi Ashok 12 under par and was clearly disappointed.

She had taken a two-stroke lead in the back nine after making her second eagle strike on the ninth hole. Although she twice bogeyed the short 13th to fall back into a header share with Van Dam, she birdied the 16th to regain the advantage.

Madsen later said: “I lost today; Anne didn't really win. I played really badly and made three double bugs that cost me everything. On a hole, I had a bad distance, so I did one and then another on the 18, I played aggressively and I took the risk of playing the driver, whatever the result..»

Azahara Muñoz, who won the title in 2016 and 2017, finished fourth with Olivia Cowan and Julia Engstrom, while Cheyenne Woods, Christina Kim and Marianne Skarpnord shared seventh.

LET is now moving south for the Magical Kenya Ladies Open which will close the season, where Skarpnord is on course to be crowned champion of the Order of Merit. Professional novice Esther Henseleit is the only player who could dislodge her if she wins her first victory there.

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To read our last article on this competition:

LET: Azahara Muñoz aims for 3rd title at Andalucía Costa del Sol Open de España