Turkish delight for Wahlin

5/11/2008

Sweden’s Lotta Wahlin cruised to her maiden Ladies European Tour (LET) victory at the inaugural Garanti American Express Turkish Ladies’ Open on Sunday.

The 24-year-old from Linkoping carded rounds of 71, 71, 73 and 70 at the punishing National Golf Club in Antalya, Turkey, to win by 12 shots on a total of seven-under-par.

Her winning margin was the second largest in the LET’s 30-year history since England’s Laura Davies won the 1995 Guardian Irish Holidays Open at St Margaret’s by 16 shots.

Another Swede, Johanna Westerberg (71), shared second with South African Stacy Lee Bregman (72) and Spaniard Paula Marti (74), who was eight shots back in outright second entering the final round.

Wahlin, who was the only player to finish below par for the tournament, led from start to finish and never faltered on a course featuring narrow fairways, numerous red pine trees and extremely hard greens.

She extended her lead each day and became the second Swedish first time winner in only three events on the fledgling 2008 Ladies European Tour schedule, after Emma Zackrisson won the Open de Espana at Panoramica Golf and Country Club three weeks ago.

Leaderboard – Final:

1.   Lotta Wahlin                      SWE  71 71 73 70 285 - 7
2.   Johanna Westeberg            SWE  80 72 74 71 297 +5
      Stacy Lee Bregman             SAF  74 80 71 72 297 +5
      Paula Marti                         ESP  73 77 73 74 297 +5
5.   Amy Yang                          KOR  77 77 72 72 298 +6
      Marianne Skarpnord            NOR  79 72 74 73 298 +6
7.   Trish Johnson                     ENG  78 77 74 70 299 +7
      Lisa Hall                            ENG  80 74 74 71 299 +7
9.   Stephanie Arricau                FRA  78 73 78 71 300 +8
10. Iben Tinning                       DEN  77 76 75 73 301 +9

Source: Ladies European Tour