The golfing gods have a way of administering justice; bestowing cruel fate on some, yet exultation on others, as Smilla Søenderby’s playoff win in the KPMG Women’s Irish Open – the 23-year-old Dane’s breakthrough win on the Ladies European Tour – showcased with all its heartbreak and joy.
For as Søenderby soaked in the applause of the large gallery and was showered in champagne by her tour compatriots following a brilliantly executed eagle three on the Par 5 18th hole, the first of sudden-death in a three-way play-off, the two vanquished players – Lisa Pettersson and Anne van Dam – departed, wondering what might have been.
In the case of van Dam, it was with hands held to her head as she made the lonely walk back to the clubhouse and, perhaps, the sanctuary of the locker room where the Dutchwoman could find some time and space to allow her brain to make sense of what had unfolded in the bizarre drama which had left her without a driver to use in the playoff.
Earlier in the week, van Dam’s driver had been broken in air transit and she only managed to get a replacement shortly before teeing off in the first round on Thursday. It had worked superbly, too, as the big-hitter completed the regulation 72 holes in 16-under-par 272 to earn her place in the playoff alongside Søenderby and Pettersson.
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What should have been a straightforward buggy ride back to the 18th tee, though, turned out to be anything but after her golf bag went crashing to the ground after snagging in gallery roping and her new driver snapped. Broken. Unusable.
So it was that van Dam played the Par 5 with a 3-wood off the tee and played it quite brilliantly too. But just not brilliantly enough to match Søenderby, who couldn’t have played it any better – driver to fairway, iron to green, putter into the hole – to secure her maiden win on the LET.
That eagle, indeed, followed an extraordinary round of 62 which Søenderby – with 11 birdies and one bogey – had produced. Having started the final round nine shots behind van Dam, Søenderby leapfrogged her way up the leaderboard with a mesmerising display of golf that followed words of advice from her mother Kirsten in a pre-round telephone call.
“I believed I could climb up the leaderboard. My mum was like, ‘just go out there and go low – you can do it. I believe in you’. I maybe had six under, seven under, a low round but I didn’t expect 10 under,” said Søenderby, who revealed she had used meditation in the morning to get into the zone.
“I started doing it when I was 15, on and off, just to remind myself of how my brain is working,” she said.
Still, on a beautifully sunny day with only a hit of a breeze, Søenderby turned on a masterclass in her round of 62 and then finished it off spectacularly with the eagle in sudden-death to win the newly-fashioned trophy created by jewellery designer Chupi Sweetman.
“I can’t quite believe it actually. If you had told me I would do that in the final round, I would have laughed I think. It is quite amazing,” said the Dane who, as it happened, missed out on a playoff a year ago by one stroke after three-putting on the same 18th green.
For a time, it looked like Leona Maguire would make a final round charge – three birdies inside her opening six holes – but a three-putt bogey from the edge of the eighth green put her on the back foot. The Cavan golfer’s final round 71 for 280 left her in tied-14th, as she now refocuses her energy ahead of the Solheim Cup.
Olivia Mehaffey lamented some poor putting – normally a strength of her game – as she closed out with a final round 75 for 287 in tied-50th but at least aware that her game is in decent shape heading into back-to-back weeks on tour in the Netherlands and Switzerland.
“It is nice to know that I have two events coming right up. So, and now I’m looking forward to them. I feel like my game is in a better place. I feel like I’m in a better place, just again a really, really poor week on the greens. So that happens,” said Mehaffey.
The tournament proved very successful too for some of Ireland’s elite amateurs, a number of whom have ambitions in years to come to play on the LPGA Tour and the LET.
Sara Byrne, the Irish close champion, edged out her friend Beth Coulter to claim leading amateur honours. Byrne shot a 71 for 284 in tied-36th, Coulter a 71 for 285 in tied-40th. Both return to their colleges in the USA this week and into a busy stretch of events on the collegiate circuit stateside.
