Australia’s Stacey Keating secured her first Ladies European Tour victory following a sudden death play-off against Caroline Masson at the Tenerife Open in the Canary Islands on Sunday.
Keating holed a five-foot putt on the first extra hole to beat Germany’s Masson after the pair had tied on a nine-under-par score of 279 in regulation play at Golf Las Americas.
The 26-year-old from Victoria shot a final round 70 to rein Masson (71) who surrendered a one-shot overnight lead after dropping three shots in four poor holes across the front nine on Sunday.
“It was a tough day out there and Caroline and I both played well,” Keating told ladieseuropeantour.com.
“It was nice to take it to a play-off and then get over the line.
“All day it was very close and Caroline holed some putts when she needed to so it was nice and it’s always nice to birdie the play-off hole.”
Masson hit her second play-off shot into a water hazard, with her third coming up short in the rough, and the South African Women’s Open champion was emotional afterwards.
She said: “If you hit the worst shot of the week in a play-off it’s a bit unlucky.
“If you hit a shot like that you don’t deserve to win and Stacey played well.
“She made birdie and just congratulations to her.”
The leader for the first two rounds, Nikki Garrett, rallied to pick up five birdies for a round of 70 but the Australian had to settle for fourth place on seven under par, one stroke behind Britain’s Trish Johnson (67).