(4 July 2011 – Tali, Finland)
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Caroline Hedwall is the latest star to emerge from the seemingly endless Swedish stable. On the weekend in Finland she again made the world sit up and take notice as she secured her second Ladies European Tour title in five weeks at the Finnair Masters in Helsinki. A final round of 3-under par 68 left her two shots in front of Holland’s Christel Boeljon with another Swede, Carin Koch a further shot back in third.
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rnHedwall entered the final round with a one stroke cushion after a 6-under par 65 on Friday and she proved again why she is one to watch holding off the challenge Boeljon’s, who finished with a final round of 4-under par 67.
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rnHedwall remained one clear of Boeljon at the turn and extended her lead to two strokes after rolling in a four-foot birdie putt at the par-five 14th. Then they matched each other’s scores for the last four holes with birdies on the 15th, bogeys on the 16th and birdies on the 17th.
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rnAfter Boeljon made four on the last, Hedwall tapped in for a simple par to collect the cheque for €30,000. Afterwards, she said, “I’m playing pretty well. It was a good day. It was fun. My best day was yesterday. I shot six under and I think that was the key to the win. It put me in a good position. I played pretty solid and I knew that if I holed a few putts I would have a good score. I’m going to keep on going and hopefully earn a few more wins.”
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rnShe thanked her non-identical twin sister Jacqueline, who is on a golf scholarship at Louisiana State University, for carrying her bag. After winning the Allianz Ladies Slovak Open five weeks ago Hedwall moved into 3rd place on the Henderson Money List with season’s earnings of €134,972.79. Italy’s Diana Luna continues to lead the money rankings with €177,148.16 in earnings so far.
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rnMaybe, most importantly for both Hedwall and the Europeans, the likable Swede moved to ninth on the European Solheim Cup rankings, having earned all of her points in her last four events. While it was her second win on the Ladies European Tour, it was her fourth title of the season after she won the Bing Lee/Samsung NSW Women’s Open in January and the PowerPlay Golf event in Europe on May 30th.
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rnHedwall said of her game, “I play very solid and when I putt well I score low, my mistakes are not that big so I normally score around par and when I’m good I’m low.”
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rnConnie Chen, Anja Monke and Australia’s Stacey Keating were the three leading players in the field not otherwise exempt to earn a place at the Ricoh Women’s British Open, due to be played at Carnoustie Links in Scotland, from July 28-31.
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rnKeating continued her solid rookie season by finishing alone in 15th place at 2-under par to be the best of the ALPG Members. She also climbed 9 places on the money list to be 42nd and is virtually assured of keeping her card for next season. Karen Lunn was the next best ALPG representative, finishing at 1-over par in a tie for 23rd. Nikki Garrett (T27), Danielle Montgomery (T33), Rebecca Codd (T33) and Bree Arthur (T33) also made the cut.
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rnThe next tournament on the Ladies European Tour schedule is the Evian Masters presented by Société Générale which will be played at Evian Masters Golf Club in France from July 21-24.
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