Pace cements place among elite in Europe
Lee-Anne Pace followed up her breakthrough order of merit winning season on the Ladies European tour in 2010, with another impressive year with a second place finish in the Dubai Ladies Masters at the Emirates Golf Club on Saturday.
Pace's total of 11 under par 277 with a closing round of 69 was enough for sole possession of second place, four strokes behind American teenager, Alexis Thompson, in the final event of the season.
Fellow South African Stacy Lee Bregman was a further two shots behind in a share of fourth on nine under for the week.
It brings to an end another solid season for Pace as she managed nine top 10s, and heading into the Dubai event was sixth on the order of merit.
A top five would get Pace into the Ladies US Open in 2012.
Speaking at the Gary Player Invitational in November, Pace said she was satisfied with her consistent season despite not notching up any further wins to add to her five from last season.
"I'm hitting the ball better than last year. I'm hitting six percent more greens and seven percent more fairways plus I've gained 10 metres on my drives," said Pace.
"I've done everything I've wanted to do golfing wise, the putts just haven't dropped enough and literally sometimes one shot has been how close I've been to winning."
With a number of close finishes Pace said the Open de Espana where she finished second was one event she would have liked to win the most.
"I should've won that one, but the greens were kind of funky, some were fast some were slow," she said.
"Unfortunately I three putted the last hole but I should've won it earlier in the day.
"But maybe just a bit of luck and things would be different, but that's golf."
With her earnings at the final event, Pace might move inside the top five on the moneylist which was one of her goals heading towards the end of the season.
"My goal for the moneylist is top five, a top ten or top five in Dubai should get me a top five and that gets me into the US Open next year."
Looking ahead to next year, Pace said she will continue working at her game with little time off.
"I'm working quite hard, and also in the off season I'll be working quite hard," Pace said.
"I'll probably only take about two weeks off over Christmas and spend some time with my family.
"The first Australian event [next year] is now a combined LPGA event which is I think is a $1,2 million event."