Italy’s Alessia Nobilio today birdied the third extra hole in a play-off with Denmark’s Christina Thouber to win the English Women’s Open Amateur Stroke Play Championship at Beau Desert Golf Club.
A slick 20-footer holed from down and across the slope on the first hole on the Staffordshire venue was enough for the golfer from Milan to claim the silverware.
Before that late drama, Nobilio had staged a sensational fightback just to book her place in the play-off – conjuring up birdies on the final two holes of regulation play to force the shootout. Rounds of 74,68, 74 and 71 took the Italian onto the same +7 score posted minutes earlier by Thouber who herself had birdied two of the last three holes. A fine two-under par round of 68 followed on from Thouber’s previous scores of 72, 72 and 75.
It had looked odds-on that the play-off would be a three-way fight for the title. However, there was bitter disappointment for Jess Hall who finished one shot further back after a closing round of 72. The Bishop Auckland golfer had led the way from day one and only came undone on the back nine today. A three-putt bogey at the last denied her a place in the play-off and was a cruel way for her to end a week where she excelled in the blustery conditions.
For the final scores, click here.