Cuningham earns Euro Tour card
South Africa's Tandi Cuningham finished in 20th spot on Thursday to earn her 2012 Ladies European Tour card at the Final Qualifying School held at La Manga Club in Spain.
Despite a third round of 81, her four-over total of 365 was good enough to earn one of the 30 spots up for grabs, though there was not such good news for SA amateur Monique Smit.
Her 369 total after a 73 on the final day was one shot outside of the playoff in which six players competed for the final two places.
England’s Jodi Ewart held her overnight lead to claim a two-stroke victory, with a closing round of level-par 73 on the South Course giving the 24-year-old North Yorkshire woman an 11-under-par aggregate total, with Swiss amateur Anais Maggetti at nine under and Spain’s Carlota Ciganda five strokes further back in third.
However, it was further down the leaderboard where the drama unfolded at the end of the day after six players tied for 29th position on seven-over par.
The six players headed back out to the seventh tee to begin a sudden-death play-off for two places, to establish who would secure the last spots inside the top 30.
The Spanish duo of Laura Cabanillas and Mireia Prat competed against India’s Sharmila Nicollet, England’s Hannah Burke, Germany’s Miriam Nagl and Scotland’s Carly Booth.
Cabanillas, an 11-year veteran of the tour, holed a 12-footer for birdie to take the 29th card available at the par-four seventh hole, while the remaining five players went to the eighth tee.
Booth fell short after driving into a fairway bunker and having to lay up on the par four, eventually taking a bogey five along with Nagl and both players were eliminated. Burke, Nicollet and Prat all had four and went to the par-five ninth tee.
The drama was completed when Nicollet, who co-led after the first round, two-putted for a birdie four from the right edge of the ninth green to earn the 30th card. The other two players could not match her score.
Top-ranked Ewart was pleased to have capped a gruelling fortnight with the victory, having resisted the urge to look at the scoreboards all week.
“It feels good. I mean, fourth on the LPGA and now winning the LET: it’s a pretty good off-season if you ask me. It feels good and I’m really looking forward to this year.”
Second-placed Maggetti, who now plans to turn professional, expects her first tournament start to be at the Lalla Meryem Cup in Morocco in late March.
After making several appearances in professional tournaments over the last few years, Ciganda was delighted to be able to play a full schedule. She will first play in the Gold Coast RACV Australian Ladies Masters, beginning on 2nd February, before trying to qualify for the Australian Open and then heading to New Zealand.
There are 15 nationalities represented by the top 30 qualifiers and the USA leads the way with eight players, followed by France with four, England and Spain with three each and two players from the Netherlands. Yu Yang Zhang is set to become the LET’s first Chinese representative. Of the top 30 qualifiers, 16 players will be rookies on the Ladies European Tour this year.
SA SCORES:
20 CUNINGHAM, Tandi M 72 69 81 71 72 - 365
35 SMIT, Monique (am) 74 72 76 74 73 - 369
Missed cut:
ROBBERTZE, Morgana 76 76 74 73 - 299
VERWEY, Iliska (am) 80 71 76 75 - 302
FRYLINCK, Henriette (am) 76 75 77 75 - 303
WILLIAMS, Kim (am) 74 76 78 76 - 304