KLARA Spilkova produced a brilliant final round to claim her first victory on the Ladies European Tour (LET) in the Lalla Meryem Cup in Morocco.
Spilkova, who started the day four shots off the lead held by Norway’s Suzann Pettersen, fired six birdies in a flawless closing 66 to finish eight under par at Royal Golf Dar Es Salam.
Pettersen birdied the 17th to keep her hopes alive, but surprisingly left her birdie putt, which would have forced a play-off, short and had to settle for second place, a shot ahead of England’s Annabel Dimmock.
Spilkova, who turned professional shortly after her 16th birthday and competed in first LET tournament shortly after, picked up shots on the fifth, sixth and eighth to reach the turn in 33, before birdies on the 10th, 13th and 14th took the 22-year-old Czech into the lead outright.
Pettersen, who was trying to win her eighth LET title, had birdied the sixth and seventh to maintain her lead after Dimmock picked up three shots in the first seven holes.
However, dropped shots on the 10th and 15th left Pettersen two shots behind with three holes to play and although she got up and down from a greenside bunker on the par-five 17th, the 36-year-old was unable to find another birdie on the last.
Spilkova finished in 33rd place in the 2014 LET tournament before coming in joint sixth the following year in the ISPS Handa Ladies European Masters, setting a personal best in the process. She followed that success up with another sixth-placed finish, this time with a nerveless performance in the 2014 Turkish Ladies Open.
In 2015, the Czech placed 21st on the LET’s Order of Merit then represented her country at last year’s Summer Olympic Games in Rio.
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