Lee-Anne Pace cruises into SA Women’s history books
San Lameer CC played host to a very successful SA Women's Open, sponsored by the Ray Nkonyeni Municipality.
IN the end it was all a bit to easy for the two-time SA Women’s Open defending champion Lee-Anne Pace of Paarl as she clinched her third successive victory at the tournament.
In doing so she became the first woman to achieve this feat, and as someone who appreciates the history of the game, she was well pleased.
She finished on -8, seven shots ahead of nearest competitor Ashleigh Buhai (nee Simon), herself a past winner.
The tournament was sponsored by the Ray Nkonyeni Municipality (formerly Hibiscus Coast Municipality).
In her victory speech, Lee-Anne thanked the mayor, Nomusa Cynthia Mqwebu, for playing such a massive role in reviving women’s golf in South Africa.
The mayor herself thanked Lee-Anne for making the effort to play, giving up the opportunity to play a LPGA event in the US to make the trip.
She also thanked the 20 golfers who had come from overseas to play, adding an international flavour to the event.
The closest Lee-Anne came to experiencing a ‘wobble’ was on the par five 8th, where her third spun back to the front of the green and into three putt territory.
Stacy Bregman meanwhile, four behind, had spun a pitch shot out the rough 60 odd metres away to about 15 foot.
Lee-Anne’s first putt was well wide and a touch short. But when Stacy left her birdie putt short, Lee-Anne slammed the door by rolling in her par putt.
The gap could have been narrowed to two at that point.
In the end, Lee-Anne was just too solid and the brisk breeze didn’t allow for any out of this world scoring.
A pleasing feature of the day was seeing so many youngsters watching the golf, including a sizable group from the municipality’s academy.
A lot of these youngsters grabbed as many autographs as they could. It was impressive to see how friendly the professionals were to the children.
Local favourite Melissa Eaton, formerly of Port Shepstone, didn’t have the best of events, struggling a touch on the greens.
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