Marta Martín (-7) will face a new situation in her career this Sunday. She will fight for victory in a tournament of the Ladies European Tour. The appointment is at the NSW Open, Australia, east coast, at the beautiful Magenta Shores Golf & Country Club, Tuggerah beach.
It won’t be easy because the distance to the lead is notable, but the opportunity exists and she has created it. She is fifth, five strokes behind Mariajo Uribe (-12) and two from the second place occupied by Taiwanese Peiying Tsai (-9).
In other words, the Spaniard will have to play very well on the last day and, in addition, have some collaboration from the Colombian Uribe, the most experienced of the golfers competing this week, although her best years are already far behind. Her only professional victory came in Brazil thirteen years ago, in an unofficial LPGA Tour tournament organized to promote golf before the Rio Olympic Games.
Martín has handed in a card of 70 strokes on the second day, again with solid and very consistent golf, knowing how to squeeze this links course that looks at New Zealand. She signed four birdies and two bogeys, which came in the only two holes she missed green of her first 15.
Marta’s round has a lot of merit and shows a lot of grit. After three immaculately played holes, with birdie options, the first thing that appeared was a bogey on the 4th. However, her reaction was very good, with birdie on the 5th, 9th and 11th. She signed another bogey on the 12th and reacted wonderfully again with a birdie on the next hole. However, the key to the day were, without a doubt, the two recoveries she signed on the 16th and 17th.
Whatever happens tomorrow, the Madrid golfer will accumulate an experience that will surely be very useful in the future. To start with, it is proving that her game is already at a level that allows her to fight for victories in the LET. This should be a significant boost to her confidence. Let’s not forget, she comes from enjoying her best year of golf in the LET Access, with a victory, a third place and three top 10s.
Martín will not be the only Spaniard with a chance of victory this Sunday. Luna Sobrón (-5) and María Hernández (-5) have also left a small window open. The Balearic and Navarrese have it more complicated because they are seven behind Uribe, but ahead of them there are only six golfers, so signing the best round of the day they would still have their options.
Luna has also shown a lot of race. The round started very twisted, to the point that her chances of doing something important seemed to be diluted with a double bogey and a bogey on holes 4 and 6. However, from there she managed to deliver a very good partial of three under par, with four birdies and a bogey. And it could even have been better, as she putted fifteen times for birdie. Be that as it may, she has her chance, if not to win, at least to reap a great result that boosts the season.
On the other hand, María has made 70 strokes, with four birdies and two bogeys, showing one more day that she can make many birdies to this Magenta Shores. If the putter accompanies her in the last round, she will give more than a headache to those above. In addition, Teresa Toscano (-1) has passed the cut, while Teresa Díez Moliner and Carmen Alonso have been left out, the latter having withdrawn before going out to play.
It will be very interesting to see how Uribe responds to the situation of being a leader with a three-stroke advantage. She has not yet won on the major circuits. Her best result is a third in the LPGA in 2015. In addition, she has eleven more top 10s in nearly 200 tournaments. That is, she is not very used to being in these situations. However, in her favour is that she comes from being fourth in a Epson Tour tournament, so obviously her game is good.
