Carlydigs

Intopick upathird European crown

Perthshire golfer Carly Booth has been celebrating a third Ladies European Tour victory.

The Comrie ace held her nerve over the weekend to be crowned Tipsport Czech Ladies Open winner, clinching the trophy by only one shot.

Booth carded rounds of 68, 69 and 70 for a 54-hole total of 207, nine-underpar, at Golf Resort Karlštejn to finish a stroke ahead of Finland’s Sanna Nuutinen, France’s Anais Meysonnier and English pair Charlotte Thompson and Hayley Davis.

The 27-year-old, whose two other wins on tour both came in 2012, was overcome with emotion when she realised the title was hers.

She began the final round tied for the lead with Nuutinen on seven-underpar but had a nervy start, hitting her first drive right out of bounds and then dropping three shots in her first four holes.

But she produced a gutsy fightback with birdies on the fifth, seventh and ninth to make the turn in level par, regaining a share of the lead.

At the fifth, she made a birdie putt from eight feet and then on the par-five seventh, she holed a massive left-to-right breaking putt from 20 feet, before hitting a punch wedge in to five feet at the ninth and converting the putt.

She took the outright advantage after birdies on the 11th and 13th, playing a five-iron shot to within six feet of the flag on the 11th and then chipping in on the long 13th.

She then hit a wall at 14 with a bogey, followed by another on the 15th, where she made another great upand-down from 54 yards.

From that point, the game plan was to birdie each of the final three holes and she managed two further gains, on the 16th and 17th, before finishing with a par on the last.

“It was probably just as well I didn’t know what the situation was,” said Booth.

“I’m a little bit flabbergasted by the whole day. I played good golf and I really had to dig deep in the final round. I’m overwhelmed with happiness.

“It’s been seven years, so it’s a bit of a shock.

“Not knowing what the winning score was, I didn’t know anything about the leaderboard and I made a really solid par in the end.”