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| Gwladys celebrates on the 18th green |
After eight top tens in nine starts including her three victories, Nocera declared that she was keen to keep up her winning streak. When asked if she had expected to win a hat-trick of tournaments, she said: “After three comes four and now I’m already thinking about the next one.”
The Evian Masters and the Weetabix Women’s British Open take place over the next fortnight and are the two biggest tournaments in European women’s golf.
“It would be great to win Evian at home in France but the British is the one I would love to win the most. I think I still need to improve my game to win, but if I play well, I would love to finish top ten,” said The 2005 Solheim Cup player.
Nocera has already beaten some of the best players in the world and she announced her talent to a global audience when she defeated US player Cristie Kerr in her singles match at The 2005 Solheim Cup in America.
At Golf D’Aro today, she began strongly with two consecutive birdies at the first and second holes and sank an important ten-foot bogey putt at the fourth.
A run of three birdies from the sixth took her to ten-under-par with a five shot lead at the turn. That was enough to give her a comfortable margin of victory despite two bogeys coming home at the 11th and 18th holes.
Only Australia’s Kemp came close to challenging the French woman after her 68 took her to four-under-par for the tournament. The 20-year-old from New South Wales finished in outright second position and she carded three birdies, a bogey and an eagle at the par-five eighth hole, for her career best finish.
Kemp is looking forward to making her debut in the Weetabix Women’s British Open at Royal Lytham and St Annes in a fortnight’s time and plans to practise there for the next seven days in preparation.
“I come from New South Wales GC and its a little linksy so I like those tournaments,” she admitted.
French woman Ludivine Kreutz had a 66 – the joint best score of the week – and tied for third position on three-under-par with Maria Hjorth of Sweden. Spain’s Marina Arruti also had a 66 to claim outright fourth place on two-under-par. Finland’s Riikka Hakkarainen tied for sixth with Sweden’s Lotta Wahlin and England’s Lisa Hall finished outright eighth place for the best finish in the tournament by a Briton.
