It took a special round to win it, and Moa Folke of Sweden provided just that with a brilliant bogey-free eight-under-par 64 on Sunday to take the Sunshine Ladies Tour’s Dimension Data Ladies Pro-Am at Fancourt.
The 27-year-old with one professional win on the Swedish Golf Tour made the normally intimidating Montagu layout at Fancourt look easy with an eagle and six birdies, and her eight-under-par 54-hole tally put her three shots clear of long-time leader Anne-Lise Caudal of France, who was second, and four clear of five-time Investec South African Women’s Open champion Lee-Anne Pace. England’s Lily May Humphreys couldn’t hold on to the lead she held after the first and second rounds, but still finished fourth on three-under-par.
“I’m so happy,” said Folke. “I got off to a very good start, which really helped me. I knew I started quite far behind, but I just felt I had to keep going and how long I could go. I played really well off the tee all week, but really struggled on the greens. But today everything clicked, and it just felt like I was never in trouble. That was a very nice feeling.”
After two opening pars, she made birdie on three and then picked up an eagle in the fourth, which got her charge well underway. “I hit a really good drive on four,” she said, “and then I had a five-iron in. I actually hit it to about three metres. It was a really good shot and then I made the putt.
“Everything just worked out great today. I hit my driver well and got a lot of opportunities, and just seemed to be putting pretty well today. The first two days I struggled so much and I was very frustrated, but today, I found something this morning on the practice green. The, I got off to a good start and made a few. After that, it was much better today.”
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.
For Folke, there were no problems as she had only three, fours and a single five on her scorecard. “I didn’t really make any mistakes today, which is rare for a golfer to say,” she said. “Everything just seemed to go my way, and I kept hitting great shots.
“I looked at a leaderboard a few times, and I saw that it was really close. I saw Anne-Lise was at seven-under for a very long time, so, coming into 18, I thought we were tied. But when I was going to hit my approach, I saw that she was on four-under and I thought maybe that wasn’t right. I could relax a little bit but I still kept going.”
Folke follows 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. “Linn is such an inspiration to me,” said Folke. “She’s done so well and she’s such a great player. It feels great to win here like she did. I hope I can keep building off this and have some more good things happen.”
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 beginning of April, playing the rest of the tournaments and 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.”
