Ashleigh Simon overtakes seasoned Gwladys Nocera to win ISPS Handa Portugal Ladies Open trophy
South Africa’s young talent Ashleigh Simon crushed all hopes of Veteran Gwladys Nocera by winning the ISPS Handa Portugal Ladies Open at CampoReal Resort and Spa, north of Lisbon.
Simon, who hails from Johannesburg, played exceptionally well on a difficult and windy day in Lisbon and carded a brilliant five-under, 67 to win her second title on the Ladies European Tour. The 22-year-old posted her first win on the tour in 2007 Catalonia
Ladies Masters in Spain as she turned professional at the age of 18.
“It’s a huge honour to win any Ladies European Tour event. I think that the climate is so close to South Africa so I felt comfortable here the whole week. It’s been an absolutely great week,” said Simon. “I played really good the whole week and didn’t let
my head get away. I didn’t know what score I was on so I was very focused: 66, 67, 67, so very consistent.”
Simon closed the turn with a three-under and had already snatched the lead from Nocera, who fared badly in her opening holes. She carded another four birdies and stumbled on two bogeys before heading to the clubhouse with a 16-under, 200 on the total. Nocera
finished 13-under, 203. Last week’s winner on the LET, Turkish Airlines LadiesOpen, Belgian Christel Boeljon finished for an outright third with her aggregate of nine-under, 207.
“I started off not really good; it was really windy and I put a ball in the water with the second shot on number one; I took a bogey on number two. I put another ball in the water on eight, so that was way too many mistakes,” said a dejected Nocera, who
is looking for a win on the tour to reserve a place in the upcoming Solheim Cup. She stumbled with consecutive bogeys in her opening holes but recovered quickly to consolidate her position.
Simon has done well since the start of the season and also recorded a finish for the seventh place in last month's Lalla Meryem Cup in Morroco. She collected a winner’s cheque of €30,000 out of the total purse of €200,000.
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