Nicole Gergely from Austria

(Sunday 20th September 2009) – Nicole Gergely became Austria’s first winner on the Ladies European Tour when she claimed a two shot victory at the Randstad Open de France Dames on Sunday.

Gergely’s magnificent final round of five-under 67 equalled her career best and saw her finish on a total of 13-under-par at Le Golf D’Arras.

Gergely, who opened with rounds of 71, 67 and 70, finished two clear of Finland’s Ursula Wikstrom, who finished with 69.

“It’s awesome. I can’t believe it. It was always a dream,” said Gergely, 24, from Judenburg.

“I played so well this year. Today I thought, “Okay, I won’t put myself under pressure. I’ll just see whenever it comes, it comes. It’s really unexpected here; it’s unbelievable.”

Gergely started slowly when her ball landed in the water at the second resulting in a bogey, but that was her only mistake all day. She added six birdies, with three in a row from the fourth hole.

“I struggled a bit the first few. I had a bogey on the second when I went in the water and really stupid but then birdie on four, five really helped. I thought, okay, its going. I just hit it really good today except on 18 but that’s okay,” she said.

Her victory takes her to 13th on the Henderson Money List and earned her €45,000. She said she hoped to upstage the male professionals competing at the Austrian Open in her home country this weekend.

“I got a mail yesterday from Golf-Live.at, who always does the live scoring for us. Marcus Brier is playing in Austria and he was seventh. They said it would be really cool if you can win it and just put him in the shadow. I thought, “That’s some kind of pressure but why not.””

Gergely became the ninth first time winner on the LET this season and as a result, Austria is the 12th nation to have a representative in the winner’s circle this year.

Wikstrom is still searching for her breakthrough victory but was happy to hole a clutch par putt for outright second.

Wales’ Becky Brewerton signed off with a 70 and shared third place with the 2008 champion Anja Monke from Germany, who had a 71.

Brewerton had reached 12-under with a hole to play and was within a stroke of the leader when she found trouble at the 18th, resulting in a double bogey. After hitting her tee shot into the trees, she had to chip out and her third shot went just out of bounds. She was relieved to drain the 20-footer.

“It was a nice one to make because I think finishing with an eight would have been a bit of a disaster,” she said.

“I’m still fairly happy because it’s the best performance by far on this course. I haven’t played that hole well all week. I’ve been quite lucky to get away with a couple of other shots. I made a great five from there yesterday in practically the same position I was in today. If you don’t hit the fairway there it becomes a pretty difficult hole.

“Obviously I’m disappointed because I hit a couple of really poor shots but I made quite a nice putt in the end for a seven and probably saved myself quite a bit of money and some places. It all counts towards getting a bit closer to catching Diana Luna and Sophie and Catriona for the money list.” She is now ranked third on tour overall.

The third round leader, South African Lee-Anne Pace, led after seven holes but came unstuck on the back nine. She finished with a 74 and tied for fifth with England’s Felicity Johnson (67) on nine-under-par overall.