Laura Davies claims SAS Masters

(Oslo Golf Club, Norway - August 27th 2006) – England’s Laura Davies claimed her first victory in more than two years at the SAS Masters in Norway.

The 42-year old fired a blistering final round of four-under 68 to win by six strokes on 11-under-par 205 at Oslo Golf Club, where she also won in 2002, four years ago.

Davies last won the 2004 Women’s Australian Open two years and five months ago and she had finished second four times on the Ladies European Tour this summer.

With her win, she ended the longest winless spell in a 20-year career. It was her 35th European victory and 67th overall.

The four time major winner admitted that it was huge relief to finally get the monkey off her back: “It’s been such a long time coming I’m really pleased with it,” she said.

“It’s just nice to get the win having had a few seconds and a few thirds last year. It’s nice to get the win and I can’t stop smiling.

“When I missed my seventh cut on the trot in America I did wonder if I would win again. It was miserable times. But ever since then I’ve finished second in those two tournaments in Europe and got all my confidence back. Obviously the Evian was the biggest performance of the year before this one. This out rates Evian because I have finally won.”

Laura Davies

Davies stated her intentions at the beginning of the week when she had just overtaken France’s Gwladys Nocera at the top of the New Star Money List. With her prize winner’s cheque for 30,000 euros, she surged further ahead in the race to become the European no.1 and she has now earned more than 425,000 euros in eight appearances.

Davies, who fired 69 and 68 in her first two rounds, began her final round with a two stroke lead and started the day with a flourish by eagling the par-five second hole. However she immediately gave two strokes back with bogeys at the third and sixth holes, narrowing her lead to just two strokes over a chasing Ellen Smets of Belgium, who eventually finished in outright second.

Davies holed a long curling 15 foot putt at the par-four seventh hole to move to eight-under and played the front nine in one-under 35.

She missed a short birdie putt on the long par-five 10th but compensated by sinking a killer putt from 20 feet at the next to move to nine-under with a three stroke lead.

Ellen Smets finished second

At the 13th, Davies sunk another impressive putt from 25 feet which took her to ten-under-par.

It was at the par-five 15th when she made a decisive move, playing a possible shot of the year from a difficult side hill lie and setting herself up for an easy eagle putt, which she then converted. She hit a two-iron approach to two feet from 220 yards to a tremendous reception from the gallery and sunk the putt to move to 12-under-par.

“When I hit the two-iron into 15, that was it,” Davies later admitted. “We were struggling to find out what the score was. I asked the camera people a couple of times and when I hit that shot we were thinking we might have a three shot lead but we actually had a five shot lead. That made it a seven shot lead and it was all over.”

Another birdie followed at the par-three 16th hole and Davies moved to 13-under with two holes to play with the potential for a runaway victory but she bogeyed the last two holes.

“I was a bit nervous early on and I thought I would be because I haven’t won for so long and then I made a nice eagle on the second, relaxed, and then gave two shots straight back. So it was a strange start but then the back nine I played great and made some nice putts and hit a great shot into 15 so it was a nice way to win,” she said.

Davies admitted that she had used a lucky charm in the final round – her late father Dave Davies’ ball marker on which his initials are engraved. “I usually only use this on the last day when I’ve got a chance to win so it worked today,” she said.

Ellen Smets

Ellen Smets of Belgium, who played in the penultimate match, had a 70 and finished in second position on five-under-par. It was Smets’ best career finish on the LET and she claimed 20,300 euros in prize money.

Australian rookie Nikki Garrett carded a final round 70 to tie for third on four-under-par with the first round leader Virginie Lagoutte of France, who had a 71.

Sweden’s Cecilia Ekelundh had a 70 and finished fifth on three-under while five players tied for sixth on one-under-par including Norwegian Suzann Pettersen, last week’s Wales Ladies Champion Linda Wessberg of Sweden and Rebecca Hudson, who won this year in Hungary.