(20 February 2011 – Pegasus, New Zealand)
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West Australian Kristie Smith scored her maiden win on the Ladies European Tour (LET) with a three-shot victory in the Pegasus New Zealand Women&aposs Open at the Pegasus course north of Christchurch today. Starting the final round tied for third and five shots behind overnight leader, Italy&aposs Giulia Sergas, Smith was one of few players in the leading groups to cope with the brutal north-easterly wind that raged all afternoon. In tied second place was America&aposs Tiffany Joh and Sergas at 9-under par
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With Sergas, who dropped three shots, including a one-stroke time penalty, on the last two holes of her third round coming back to the field with a bogey, bogey, triple-bogey start, Smith was one of 13 golfers within three shots of the lead with 15 holes to play. She took the outright lead for the first time, moving to 10-under par with a birdie on the 7th hole, and she stayed strong both physically and mentally to the end, firing five birdies in the trying conditions with just the one dropped shot at the 13th.
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Her four-under par 68 – the second-best round of the day – had her finish at 12-under for the tournament, three shots ahead of Sergas and American Tiffany Joh, with brilliant 13-year-old New Zealand amateur, Lydia Ko and the highly ranked Melissa Reid (England) tied for fifth at seven-under. Defending champion Laura Davies succumbed in the tough conditions to finish tied for 7th.
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Smith, the 22-year-old daughter of veteran Australian professional, Wayne, turned pro in 2008 after winning the Australian amateur championship and the North and South amateur title in the United States. Her first professional win was the ActewAGL Royal Canberra Ladies Classic on the Australian tour after a nine-under par 64 in the final round and last year she
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In her rookie year on the LET Tour she played 15 events with her best results being runner-up in the Slovak Open and tied fourth in the Swiss Open. She finished 25th on the money list with earnings of nearly Euros85,000.
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After being pipped on the last hole in last year&aposs Slovak Open, Smith had as her target this season a win on the European Tour. "My goal was to win on the LET this year and it is nice to have done it early. It was always going to be a tough day (with the wind) from the first tee. I thought if I could shoot par or around that it was going to be a good score today. But to see my name with a two-shot lead after the turn was pretty cool."
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"I just told myself to play smart on the back nine, it&aposs a tough back nine and people were going to drop shots. I wanted to hit fairways and greens, two-putt and get out of there and that&aposs what I did. I&aposm over the moon – I knew I could do it.&apos&apos
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Smith signed off like a true champion on the pasr-5 18th hole. She "smashed" an 8-iron second to just short of the green and her 7-iron running chip hit the pin and left her a tap-in birdie.
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