Essex’s Lily May Humphreys won the Girls British Open Amateur Championship after defeating Emilie Overas 7&5 at Enville Golf Club in Staffordshire to seal the biggest win of her amateur career.
Following her impressive triumph, the 15 year old from Stoke by Nayland has earned an exemption into Final Qualifying for the Ricoh Women’s British Open next year, and will aim to secure a place in the starting field at Royal Lytham & St Annes.
Humphreys surged into the lead with a birdie at the par-5 first, and the 2017 European Young Masters champion was soon two-up on her opponent after Overas could only manage a double-bogey on the par-3 second.
The England youth international extended her advantage to three holes after an excellent birdie on the third, before taking a firm grip of the match at four up after the Norwegian made a bogey on the fourth to lose another hole.
The blistering start made by Humphreys to win four consecutive holes eventually ran out of steam after the pair halved both the fifth and sixth, before Overas made small inroads into reducing the deficit by bouncing back to win the seventh with a birdie three.
The fightback was short-lived however; Humphreys responded in kind by birdieing the eighth to restore the lead back to four holes, and laid one hand on the trophy after rolling in a birdie on the par-5 10th to move to five up.
Overas conceded on the 11th to widen the gap to six holes, before the duo both made birdie on the 12th to halve the hole. Humphreys closed out the match on the 13th, after Overas conceded the hole, sealing a memorable win to lift the title.
In the first of this morning’s semi-finals, Humphreys narrowly overcame Germany’s Paula Kirner by one hole to secure her passage to the final. Overas sealed her place in the final by a fine margin too, defeating Elena Moosmann of Switzerland by two holes.
Humphreys said: “This win means so much. This is the best I’ve ever played to win a tournament. I didn’t miss a putt. I was six under par after thirteen holes, so I guess that’s pretty difficult to beat.”