Africa-Press – Eswatini. Eswatini professional golfer Nobuhle Dlamini continues to leave a mark on the big stage.
The Lobamba-born golfer earned over E120 000 during the recently-ended Dimension Data Ladies Pro-Am at Fancourt, South Africa this past Sunday. She came 14th overall on over-par six after round three of the tournament that was played by both professional and amateurs golfers. The tournament started on Thursday and ended on Sunday.
In the team category, her and partner S. Coppin were eighth overall, after carding an impressive seven under-par. “It was a good to start the Sunshine Ladies Tour season at some of the best courses in South Africa, thanks to Dimension Data and Standard Bank for putting up an amazing event for women’s golf in SA,” tweeted Dlamini after the event.
Stake
The overall winner of the tournament was Moa Folke of Sweden, with a brilliant bogey-free eight-under-par-64 on Sunday, to take the E400 000 at stake. The 27-year-old made the normally intimidating Montagu layout at Fancourt look easy on the final day of the R2.5 million Sunshine Ladies Tour event. Starting the final round five shots off the lead, Folke fired an eagle and six birdies, and her eight-under-par 54-hole tally left her three shots clear of long-time leader Anne-Lise Caudal of France.
Five-time Investec South African Women’s Open champion Lee-Anne Pace finished four shots back in third, and England’s Lily May Humphreys, who couldn’t keep a grip on to the lead she held after the first and second rounds, was fourth on three-under. Kaleigh Telfer rounded out the top five, closing with a 69 to finish on one-under.
After two opening pars, she made birdie on three and then picked up an eagle in the fourth, which got her charge well underway. Caudal also made eagle on four to pick up her first shots of the day and hit the front. It was a position she held with two birdies and two bogeys until she went out of bounds on the 14th and ended up making double-bogey six there. A bogey on 16 and a birdie on 18 left her in second.
Boasted
For Folke, there were no such problems; her scorecard boasted a lone five on the lengthy 10th and the rest were threes and fours. Fortune favoured the Swedes for a second successive year, as Folke followed in the footsteps of the superb Linn Grant, the fabulous Swede who took the title at Fancourt last year and went on to a dominating year on the Ladies European Tour. She’s giving herself a chance by staying on for the rest of the Sunshine Ladies Tour season. “South Africa is one my favourite countries,” she said.
“I love coming here, so I’m staying until the end of March. “I’m playing the next two tournaments and then the two Ladies European Tour co-sanctioned events, the Joburg Ladies Open and the Investec South African Women’s Open, at the end of the season.” Folke will have a chance to emulate Grant with back-to-back victories in the Cape Town Ladies Open, which tees off at a new venue – the Atlantic Beach Links – from 15-17 February.
For More News And Analysis About Eswatini Follow Africa-Press
