Carlota Ciganda, brilliant Estrella Damm winner in Terramar

warned already Charlotte Ciganda at the end of the third round, when he was asked if the four shot advantage he had before was enough to win this Sunday. And it is that in this last day of Estrella Damm Ladies Open, the Navarrese golfer became more humane than the other three days and had to fight more than expected. “It’s never easy to win, there are nerves but I like the adrenaline of fighting for victory. It’s part of the process of being up there”, said the Ulzama woman after her win with 270 strokes (-18). The second in this women’s European Tour tournament after being reached in 2019.

Carlota, who was totally focused on her game and her work, even made her first bogey, on hole 2, after starting the day with a birdie, became anecdotal and almost normal, after 53 holes without mistakes and two clean rounds on Terramar Golf Club.

However, the double bogey Navarrese made on the 9th hole was a warning that the day would not be a cake walk. “Anything can happen in golf, a player comes from behind who is calm and you don’t have the best day, and everything can get complicated,” he explained.

Carlota’s mistakes were taken advantage of by Argentina’s Magdalena Simmermacher, who, along with a good run of four birdies, after another two at the start of her return, even became the leader to add some spice to the tournament.

But the player from Buenos Aires didn’t keep up and two bogeys on holes 12 and 14 gave Carlota wind, who also chained an eagle and a bogey on holes 16 and 17 to regain the lead almost permanently. “I’m really looking forward to the 16th hole. I played it very well the other day but I only made a birdie and two par. Now, with the birdie I’m satisfied, but the eagle has been crucial”, he highlighted.

Scottish Laura Beveridge, almost soundless, signed a great round of 66 shots (-6), no error and had six birdies, which lifted her to second position, two shots behind Ciganda who with a total of 272 (-16).).

Emotional words for Unzué

Then, at the awards ceremony, Carlota Ciganda narrated the most emotional moment of the contest and with emotion on the surface, she dedicated the victory to “some recently deceased relatives and Juan Carlos Unzué”. The former footballer and coach from Navarra is battling ALS (amyotrophic lateral sclerosis), a disease he has suffered from for two years.

In Carlota’s case, Nuria Iturrioz and Ana Peláez They finished as the best Spanish players by continuing their trend in this tournament: not to stop fighting until the last hole, no matter how much they saw the leader in the overall distance classification themselves. And the prize for that tension was a well-deserved shared seventh spot with a total of 278 shots (-10).

Another of the sensations of this Estrella Damm Ladies Open presented by Catalunya is young rookie Miriam Ayora, at the time, host club player and highest ranked Catalan golfer in the tournament (22nd)leading professionals Mireia Prat and Elia Folch.