Nadia van der Westhuizen overcame her poor third round with a closing three-under-par 69 on Sunday to finish in a share of seventh in the Ladies European Tour’s Hulencourt Women’s Open near Brussels in Belgium.

Van der Westhuizen had slumped to a five-over 77 in the third round with a triple-bogey, two doubles, a bogey and three birdies. That dropped her into a share of 16th, after she had shared the lead on four-under after the first round, and was in a share of third after her level-par in the second.

She picked up five birdies in the final round, and dropped two shots as she clawed her way back to two-under-par for the tournament. That put her 10 shots behind the winner, Spanish rookie Carolina Chacarra. Chacarra closed with a bogey-free four-under 68 to beat 54-hole leader Kelsey Bennett of Australia, who carded a one-over 73 to slip to nine-under, three back.

It was Chacarra’s third start on the tour, and she became the first rookie to win this season. “I was definitely nervous, especially the last three holes,” she said. “I had a little bit of adrenaline so I was telling my caddie we needed to take some metres off the yardage. But it was great. My goal was just to enjoy the week and try to get into the Scottish Open. So to win is amazing and I’m very happy.”

The victory moves Chacarra into second spot in the Rookie of the Year standings behind USA’s Anna Morgan and qualifies her for both the ISPS Handa Scottish Open and AIG Women’s Open.

South Africa’s Lee-Anne Pace closed with a level-par 72 to finish in a share of 18th place on level-par for the tournament.