Date: October 01, 2007
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Davies breaks drought

Laura Davies produced a vintage performance to end a 14-month wait for a title at the UNIQA Ladies Golf Open in Austria. The 43-year-old from England added a final day six-under-par 66 to her previous rounds of 69 and 65 (a new course record) to claim her 36th Ladies European Tour title and her 68th in total. Davies finished on 16-under after 54 holes, four strokes ahead of Sweden&aposs Sophie Gustafson in second. France&aposs Virginie Lagoutte-Clement (71, 69, 69) and England&aposs Kirsty A Taylor (72, 68, 69) finished tied for third on seven-under, while 18-year-old amateur Marina Kotnik was the highest-placed Austrian finishing tied for 30th on one-over. Australian Lisa Jean finished 15 strokes behind Davies after a final-round 70 with Wendy Berger firing a 77 to be a further seven strokes back. It was Davies&apos maiden victory in Austria and her first title since the SAS Masters in Norway in August 2006, a win which also helped her to top the New Star Money List for the seventh time in her career. “It&aposs nice. It was getting a bit late in the year. I&aposve only got eight tournaments left so I had to win one,” Davies said. “It&aposs massive, it&aposs massive. I just love winning trophies. It&aposs easy to say but I just love winning them and this makes it that there was only one year in 23 years that I didn&apost win a tournament (2005) and that still wrangles me that I didn&apost win a tournament that year.” “I love the golf course and that was one of the reasons I came back. I knew I could do well around here and here I am: I&aposm the winner.”