Davies finishes with a flourish

ENGLAND’S Laura Davies fired a closing 70 to win the UNIQA Ladies Golf Open in Fohrenwald-Wiener Neustadt, Austria, yesterday afternoon for her 75th career victory.

The result went right down to the last hole, which Davies birdied after playing a magnificent shot out of the greenside bunker to six feet and sinking the putt.

It was her third triumph at the event following wins in 2007 and 2008, and marked her third win of the season after victories in New Zealand and Germany. It also made her the Ladies European Tour’s oldest winner, aged 46 years and 11 months.

Despite having won so many titles, she revealed she was nervous.

“I was shaking. It’s your legs; your legs go. If your hands and your arms go then you’re in trouble but you feel your legs getting a bit shaky,” said Davies, who finished with an 11-under-par total of 205, one ahead of Virginie Lagoutte-Clement.

“Over that bunker shot, with all the water behind, my legs were a bit shaky on that and over the putt but I guess that’s just the adrenaline and you’re just excited about trying to win a golf tournament.

“If you didn’t have that then you wouldn’t win.”

Davies entered the final round a stroke behind compatriot Melissa Reid, who closed with a 73 to share third with Alison Walshe of the United States (67).

Reid was tied with Davies with a hole to play and in an almost identical spot in the bunker but three-putted for a bogey to slip behind France’s Lagoutte-Clement.

Davies hopes to top the Henderson Money List for the eighth time in her career by the end of the year.

“That’s why I’m playing a lot of tournaments,” she said. “This is my seventh straight tournament and then I’m playing in France and Spain the next two weeks because I would love to do well on the Henderson Money List and obviously I have some ground to make up. Today was a good start.”