It was a magical weekend in South Africa for Chiara Tamburlini last week as the Swiss rookie dominated the field over the last two rounds to seal her maiden Ladies European Tour (LET) title at the Joburg Ladies Open.
The LET Access Series (LETAS) graduate played fearless golf at Modderfontein Golf Club as she carded rounds of 70-68-67-70 to win by an emphatic seven shots on 17-under par.
Still buzzing off the victory ahead of this week’s Investec South African Women’s Open, Tamburlini is now focusing on managing expectations while keeping a strong mental attitude – something she credits as the key factor behind the Joburg heroics.
“It’s honestly probably pretty far up there [with the best golf I’ve ever played],” the 24-year-old says at Erinvale Country & Golf Estate, the host of this week’s tournament. “It has to be. I mean getting to 20-under par [with two holes to play] on any golf course must mean things are going pretty well!
“But it was probably my mental attitude more than anything to be honest. I feel like I had been playing pretty good the whole season, minus the two cuts that I had missed. I was just in a good mindset and stopped focusing about my swing and my putting stroke, and went down the performance route. I think that was definitely the key to success.”
The victory came in just Tamburlini’s seventh event on Tour after she played on LETAS in 2023, a year where she won twice to finish third in the Order of Merit and earn her full LET card.
“It obviously still feels incredible,” she said. “I don’t want to say it goes by fast, because it’s obviously still there, but we’re now getting ready for the next event already, and it’s only been 48 hours since I won. The mindset just has to switch really fast again from being happy and excited, from riding the highs of emotion to coming back to reality.
“I received so many messages from a lot of people. I didn’t expect that many people to reach out to me. I’ve just about caught up with answering everybody that I need to catch up with.”
As for this week, Tamburlini now tees up as one of the biggest names in the field having jumped to second in this year’s Order of Merit, 297.75 points behind England’s Bronte Law.
“I’m trying to keep everything the same,” she said. “But I would be lying if I didn’t now have higher expectations. I’m actually realising this right now [in this practice round]. I’m getting annoyed pretty fast because I’m expecting everything to work out now. I think I need to have a little bit of a reality check that it’s still golf, and golf isn’t always going to go perfect. I don’t want to jinx it, but that’s just how it is.
“[The course] is very nice. Very different to last week. It’s so wide open but the conditions are similar. The greens on the grass and fairways. There’s going to be a lot more wedges than last week. So it’s a bit different, but I’m excited.”
Tamburlini gets underway at the 2024 Investec South African Women’s Open on Thursday at 07:35 playing alongside South African legend Lee-Anne Pace and rising amateur Kyra van Kan.
Follow all the action throughout the tournament on our socials – @LETgolf on Instagram, TikTok and X, and Ladies European Tour on YouTube and Facebook – #RaiseOurGame | #InvestecSAWomensOpen.
