England’s Ellie Gower secured her professional debut win at the 2024 Calatayud Ladies Open after beating fellow compatriot Billie-Jo Smith in a one-hole play-off.
Coming from behind on a closely fought final day, Gower shot a 68 (-4) round in regulation play with two birdies on holes 16 and 17 to secure herself a spot in the play off, the third consecutive play-off for England’s Billie-Jo Smith.
It was short and sweet from Gower who took victory with one try on the difficult par three ninth hole.
Speaking about the win, Gower said: “It means so much. I’ve never won before, and I’ve never been in a play-off so, it means a lot. It’s crazy. It just makes all the hard work worthwhile.
“I was shocked when I found out it was a play off. At the beginning of the day, the leading score was nine under, so I didn’t really expect 10 under to be winning it.
“I had no idea that billie-jo was on 10 under too. So, it was a bit of a shock, a good shock.”
With this win, Gower moves from 51st to 13th on the Order of Merit, which guarantees her a spot at Final LET Qualifying.
“Skipping pre-qualifying was one of my main goals coming into this week. I’m happy that I managed to do that.
“Before the playoff started, I was happy whether I won or not. My boyfriend said to me that it was ok to achieve one of my goals already.
“Just to have someone here who has helped me so much. I probably wouldn’t have won without him. He really helped me and calmed me down.
“He said forget about what score you are one and just play one shot at a time. That’s what I did, I’m so proud of us.”
Spain’s Amaia Latorre, Norway’s Tina Mazarino and Italy’s Alessia Nobilio finished third on eight-under-par.
Whilst England’s Gemma Clews, Esme Hamilton, Ellen Hume, Denmark’s Puk Lyng Thomsen and overnight leader Sara Byrne all finished tied sixth on six-under-par.
With the end of the season, we usher in the 2024 LETAS graduating class. The graduates are Sweden’s Kajsa Arwefjall, England’s Billie Jo Smith, Norway’s Tina Mazarino, England’s Megan Dennis, Sweden’s Anna Magnusson, Denmark’s Natacha Host Husted and France’s Ariane Klotz.
More details on the graduates will follow on Monday.
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