Lauren Walsh had an aggressive mindset going into the final round of the LET’s La Sella Open in Spain, needing to overturn a seven-stroke deficit to 16-year-old Canadian Anna Huang who was looking to go wire-to-wire having taken the lead with an eight-under opening round.
Having arrived at La Sella on the back of her highest LET finish to date with a T2 at last week’s VP Bank Swiss Ladies Open, Walsh carded a level-par opening round in the strong afternoon winds, and then continued to improve with rounds of 68 and 66 taking her to 10-under-par and earning her a place in the final group.
Unfortunately, the fast start she was craving didn’t really materialise, with birdies on six and seven offset by a bogey on eight. A further bogey on 14 was the only deviation from par on the closing 10, and her level-par 72 resulted in a solo-fifth finish at the end of the week.
“Yeah, not what I wanted,” Walsh said afterwards. “I just didn’t really get anything going. Got two birdies on the front nine, but missed a short putt then and made bogey and couldn’t really get any momentum going again. I probably didn’t hit it as well as I have the rest of the week, but that’s golf.
“It’s still a great result overall. Maybe not a great day, but a great week.”
Huang began the day with a three-stroke lead over France’s Nastasia Nadaud, but the 16-year-old’s mettle was immediately tested when Nadaud birdied the opening two holes to reduce the deficit to one. A birdie on the par-5 third settled any nerves for Huang, and when she added another birdie on the ninth the lead was back to four again.
From there, she played the back nine in one-under, signing off with two birdies in the final three holes to secure a seven-stroke victory and become the youngest professional winner in LET history and the third youngest behind Atthaya Thitikul and Lydia Ko who were both amateurs when they won at 14 and 15 respectively.
“Honestly, I’m really shocked right now! I can’t believe I just won,” said the rookie. “It’s really crazy. I was really focused on the present and the moment, so the scores weren’t really a distraction to me. I was realised focused on hitting each shot to what I could do.
“Being in the final group showed me that I had to stick with the same game plan and not play too conservatively because what I was doing the past few days was working really well, so I kept that up.”
Annabel Wilson was the only other Irish player to make the cut, and, like Walsh, she carded a closing level-par 72 and ended the week in a tie for 19th place. It was her highest finish since taking 12th place at the Aramco Korea Championship back in May and lifts her to 84th in the LET Order of Merit.
Walsh climbs to 11th place, and should she retain her position in the top 15 at the end of the season, she’ll guarantee her place in the 2026 AIG Women’s Open.
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