Piers Manktelow
Marianne Skarpnord wins the The Pacific Bay Resort Australian Ladies Classic
Date: 21-24 Febuary 2019
Location: New South Wales, Australia
Course: Bonville Golf Resort
Prize Fund: AUD $350,000

Marianne Skarpnord has won the Australian Ladies Classic. The Norwegian claimed victory by 2 shots ahead of home favorite Hannah Green and Spaniard Nuria Iturrios.
The win is Skarpnord's 4th Ladies European Tour victory. However, this was her first in 6 years which explained the emotion she showed after holing the winning putt.
Skarpnord fired rounds of 70,72 and two consecutive 69s to claim victory. She went into the final day trailing Swede Madelene Sagstrom by 1 shot and level with Green and Iturrios but birdies on 17 and 18 gave her the 2 shot victory.
Afterwards she said “I’m delighted. I’m very, very happy because the last couple of years I’ve been struggling a bit and I haven’t been playing as well as I know I can, I’ve had a great start to this year and it’s nice to see the hard work that I put in finally giving some good results.”
The 33-year-old, who finished second in the Fatima Bint Mubarak Ladies Open last month and has now moved to the top of the LET order of merit will head to Canberra next flying high on confidence.
Rising New South Wales amateur star Doey Choi who had led after round 1 managed to find her way back to the top of the leaderboard in round 4 after three birdies in a row on 8,9 and 10. However, a double bogey on 14 saw her come up 4 shots short in T 4th.
The final leaderboard shows the strength of the Scandinavian players on the LET. In the top 11 there were 7 players from the region. 1 Norwegian, 4 swedes and 2 Danes. I am sure this will not be the first scandi victory of the season.

Next Event: ActewAGL Canberra Classic, Australia, 1st March 2019.
How did our 4 to watch get on
Hannah Green 2nd
Sarah Kemp 37th
Caroline Hedwall 37th
Ashleigh Buhai RTD