Julia Beffon golf
The weather gods relented on Sunday, parting the clouds and bathing the 18th green of the Gary Player Country Club at Sun City in sunshine as the showpiece event of the Nedbank Ladies Professional Tour built to a climax.
England’s Samantha Head held her nerve to hole a par putt on the final green and win the Nedbank MasterCard South African Ladies Masters by a stroke from Spain’s Raquel Carriedo, fresh off her maiden professional victory on the Ladies European Tour in Taiwan the previous week, overnight leader Elisabeth Esterl of Germany and Norway’s Cecilie Lundgreen.
The R1-million event, the first co-sanctioned between the South African and European tour, had been played in pouring rain similar to that which disrupted the first event on the fledgling tour at Glendower in February.
Head’s six-under-par total for victory, her second after a win in the 1999 Italian Open, underlined the dominance of the Europeans, with just five South Africans making the cut. Of them former Ladies Masters champion Laurette Maritz finished best at joint 22nd on five over. The heavy weighting for the Masters means the Europeans dominate the end-of-tour Order of Merit although they played just one tournament of the five. Head’s R165 000 (15 000) winner’s cheque put her top of the money list, with Annerie Wessels second with R89 115 from five tournaments. Mandy Adamson was next-best of the South Africans in sixth place with R 59 540 followed by Vanessa Smith in eighth with R46 280. Some of the local players felt the course was rather difficult, with the players teeing off from the front men’s tee on all but two of the 18 holes.
The Europeans, who are full-time professionals, did not mind and they and their tour organisers left with promises to be back next year.