With the team portion of the Aramco Team Series in Riyadh sewn up on Friday, it was everyone for themselves for the individual standings on the third and final day in Saudi Arabia.
Charley Hull flagged post round yesterday that she enjoyed her role in the chasing spots, and she delivered her word in spades to claim her first victory for two years. A third round in the mid-sixties [66] was more than enough to take the honours with a three-stroke advantage [-18] to second place Nicole Broch Estrup. Lauren Walsh stuck stubbornly on minus four to finish up a solid week in a tie for 22nd position.
Walsh was strong off the tee again in the final round, recording 13/14 fairways for the day in succession and this was aided by a birdie to open her account on the first. The Carton House player parred her way to the sixth before picking up another on the par-four seventh to help see Walsh turn on two-under.
She couldn’t maintain her momentum on the back nine however, dropping one back on the par-five 12th. One more was handed back to the course on the 16th and Walsh had to settle for a 72-72 finish for her week. It was a solid showing this week with no disasters and a top 25 finish, and the Dubliner has four weeks to focus on Andalucia and the Open De Espana.
Overnight leader Pia Babnik couldn’t maintain her blistering form and fell away disappointingly on the final day. After two opening days of 65, the Slovak carded her only two bogeys of the week on a damp squib of a final round. A one over [73] for Babnik saw her take solo-third position and three clear of a trio on -10, including yesterday’s swashbuckling Spaniard Fernandez Cano.
Nobody could handle the charging Charley Hull on Saturday though, as she surged clear with a timely third round 66 [-6]. The Englishwoman started hot with five birdies in her first seven to wrestle the lead off Babnik, and she never looked back. Turning on five under for the day, Hull could have been further out of sight with another three birdies on her homeward leg.
Her only flaws of the day came on that back nine with a pair of shots handed back at the two par threes, the 14th and 17th holes. Hull ends a two year wait for victory on since Oct ’22 on the LPGA, so this performance and coming from behind with such a strong finish will be all the sweeter.
“I feel like my game’s been pretty good all season,” the 28-year-old said. “I’ve been knocking on the door quite a lot over the past couple years and this week it all came together. I feel good. I’m going to get a hot chocolate [to celebrate], that’s about as it gets for me! [sic] I was actually in the gym this morning, I didn’t start my warm-up until 45 minutes before because I needed to get a 5k run in! I felt really strong out there.”
After a sensational display Hull jumps to third in the 2024 Order of Merit. Yesterday’s winning captain, Chiara Tamburlini, clinched the season-long standings on Saturday after finishing T7 to increase her tally to 2,718.44 points. She becomes the first Swiss player in history to win the Order of Merit and Rookie of the Year honours. The pack have a four-week hiatus from LET duties as next up on the 28th of November, attention will turn to the Open De Espana on the Andalucian Costa Del Sol.
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