Fátima Fernández Cano (-10) narrowly missed out on a playoff and, therefore, victory at the Swiss Ladies Open, a Ladies European Tour tournament that concluded this Sunday on the Golfpark Holzhausern course, halfway between Lucerne and Zurich.
The Galician golfer, after a rollercoaster round, had a chip from the first cut of rough on the 18th to reach -11 and go to a playoff with Englishwoman Alice Hewson and Indian Tvesa Malik. She did it wonderfully, giving herself the chance to hole, but the ball just missed the hole on the left and did not go in. A real pity. It would have been her fourth consecutive birdie. The victory on the first playoff hole went to Hewson with a great birdie.
Fátima, who started as the leader with a one-stroke lead in a very tight classification, experienced a very different round from yesterday. She started with a birdie, a good omen, but from there it was a wild rollercoaster ride. If on Saturday she managed to hand in a card without bogeys and without any mistakes, with 17 of 18 greens in regulation, today was the opposite. She had to roll up her sleeves to stay in the tournament. And boy did she…
She seemed to drift away from any chance of victory with a bogey and double bogey in a row on holes 5 and 6, two par 4s, but her reaction was once again fabulous. She made a birdie on the 7th and another on the 10th. She was back in the fight. At that moment, her round turned into a slugfest. She was not as sharp as yesterday and the wind started to make its presence felt. She strung together three holes (12-14) with bogey, birdie and bogey. She needed something more to get into the fight for victory, as behind her, both Hewson and Malik had played very well, with rounds of 65 and 66 strokes, respectively.
The 28-year-old player from Santiago de Compostela did not throw in the towel and launched a final attack to get into the playoff. She made a birdie on the 15th, 16th and 17th (the latter with a magnificent chip and putt) and went to the 18th one stroke behind the two leaders, who had already finished. She therefore had to make a birdie to go to the playoff.
Her drive on the 18th was fabulous, very long and perfectly placed on the left side of the fairway. However, the second shot, with the wind blowing intensely, was not as precise. It went a little long and to the left and ended up off the green, in the first cut of rough. She left herself a chip of about eleven meters to make a birdie. At the same time, she had to think about saving her position, so as not to lose third place.
Fátima was aggressive and brave, true to her style, she went for the birdie and almost got the reward. Afterwards, she made a good par putt of just over a meter. She could not play the playoff, but this third position equals her best ever result on the Ladies European Tour (she was third in the Lalla Meryem Cup this same year) and allows her to move up many positions in the order of merit of the circuit.
Fernández Cano’s third place is the tip of the iceberg of a magnificent collective performance by the Spanish golfers. María Hernández (-8) finished fifth with a final card of 68 strokes and Mireia Prat (-7) and Harang Lee (-7) finished seventh with respective rounds of 66 and 67 strokes. Four Spaniards among the top seven in the Swiss tournament. Spectacular. Great moment for the Spaniards on the Ladies European Tour. Let’s remember that last week Marta Martín won in the Czech Republic.
In addition, Teresa Díez Moliner (-5) finished in the top 20, Luna Sobrón (-4) made the top 30 with a discreet Sunday and Nuria Iturrioz (+1) and Marta Pérez (+2) finished beyond the 50th place.
