Gwladys Nocera secures fifth win of the season

10/5/2008

Gwladys Nocera won the Madrid Ladies Masters in Spain on Saturday for her fifth win of the year.

The Frenchwoman secured her 10th Ladies European Tour title in three seasons with a closing round of six-under-par 67. She finished on a total of 208, 11-under-par, after 54 holes at Casino Club de Golf Retamares, four strokes ahead of Paula Marti from Spain.

The €100,000 first prize money catapulted her to the top of the New Star Money List, which is the tour’s official ranking. With €382,605 in season’s earnings, Nocera is now €62,505 clear of second ranked Helen Alfredsson, the 2008 Evian Masters champion.

Nocera has seven top ten finishes this season in addition to her five wins in Scotland, the Netherlands, Norway, Sweden and Spain.

Marti, the 2002 order of merit winner, had three birdies in her bogey free round of 70. The two-time LET champion posted her eighth top ten finish of the season and moved from 10th to seventh on the ranking.

The 2007 Scandinavian TPC winner Catriona Matthew of Scotland was third on six-under after a final round of 70.

The English and Tenerife Open champion Rebecca Hudson of England and Spain’s Tania Elosegui both shot a final round of 69 to tie for fourth on five-under. Swedes Johanna Westerberg (68), Emma Zackrisson (69), Norway’s Marianne Skarpnord (70) and South Korea’s Amy Yang (73) were joint sixth on four under, with Iben Tinning (72) in tenth.

The LET now has a three week break until the Suzhou Taihou Ladies Open in China, followed by the final three events of the year in Korea, India and Dubai.

Leaderboard – Final:

1.   Gwladys Nocera                    FRA  72 69 67 208 -11
2.   Paula Merti                          ESP  68 74 70 212 - 7
3.   Catriona Matthew                 SCO  68 75 70 213 - 6
4.   Tania Elosegui                     ESP  68 77 69 214 - 5
      Rebecca Hudson                  ENG  72 73 69 214 - 5
6.    Johanna Westerberg           SWE  70 77 68 215 - 4
      Emma Zackrisson                SWE  72 74 69 215 - 4
      Marianne Skarpnord            NOR  73 72 70 215 - 4
      Amy Yang                          KOR  69 73 73 215 - 4
10. Iben Tinning                        DEN  70 74 72 216 - 3

Source: Ladies European Tour