South Korea’s Nayeon Eum produced a level-par final round to win the Anna Nordqvist Västerås Open By SmartProvider by three strokes and clinch her maiden professional victory.
The 27-year-old rounded off an excellent week – which saw her card rounds of 66, 70 and 72 – to triumph with a final score of eight-under-par at Västerås Golf Club.
Eum, who finished T8 last week in Uppsala, got off to a great start when she rolled in back-to-back birdies on holes three and four to make the turn in 34.
The South Korean then opened the back nine with another birdie, before dropping two shots on the par-four 16th , but maintained the comfortable advantage of three shots heading into the last two holes.
The winner said: “I had a good dream last night, and I found on the internet it means that everything is going to be great. So, when I woke up this morning, I thought I can do this. I think my nerves were definitely better than yesterday,although I hit the hazard on the 16th, I calmed myself down after that and just did what I had to do.”
“I think of this win as a new start and hopefully I can write a new story from now on. I will continue working with my coach Darryl Sando who I would like to thank so much. Since I’m here in Europe, I also now know how proud I am to be Korean and represent my country.”
England’s Lily May Humphreys carded a final round of 71 which included four birdies and three bogeys to finish in second place on five-under-par.
“I knew this was going to be a tough day for everyone and I tried to keep it as close to level-par as possible, so I’m happy with my result. I played pretty solid today, I holed a chip shot and a couple of good putts which kept me going through the middle of the round when it was rainy and windy.”
“My golf is getting better; it’s getting more to what I want. I’m happy with this tournament, it was showing a lot of good signs throughout the week and hopefully I’ll be able to bring this forward for the next couple of weeks.”
Finland’s Emilia Tukiainen and Austria’s Katharina Muehlbauer finished tied for third as they produced final round scores of 73 and 72, respectively.
Muehlbauer said: “Today was much tougher than the last two days, it was windy, and the greens were really fast. I struggled at some points, and it was good to have some birdies at the end. I told my caddy that par is good today when we arrived at the golf course. It’s good to see the hard work paying off and the good results coming in.”
Tukiainen also commented: “One-over wasn’t the best today but it’s golf and I am happy with the third place. It was a tough start today, but it felt good to come back with two birdies on the back nine. It was so nice to play in the final group and the crowd is always good.”
Indian Amandeep Drall shot a round of 75 today to finish fifth on -2, while three players finished tied for sixth place.
Scotland’s Rachael Taylor produced a final round of 75, and shares the spot with young amateurs Meja Ortengren from Sweden (75) and Celine Brovold Sanne from Norway (76).
Ortengren, the best Swedish player and amateur, said: “I’m dissapointed in the last two rounds but very happy with the first one. I’m learning a lot from this experience and hopefully I can handle the situation better next time. Since school starts on Monday, I will skip Allerum but will play in Tegelberga.”
Another amateur Sara Kouskova from Czechia carded 75 shots today and shared ninth-place with Germany’s Verena Gimmy (71) and Sweden’s Annelie Sjoholm (73) to round off the top-10.
