Successful title defence for Van Dam

The Netherlands’ Anne Van Dam overturned a one-shot deficit on the final hole to win the Andalucia Costa Del Sol Open de Espana Femenino for the second successive year.

Van Dam began the final round three strokes behind Nanna Koerstz Madsen and still trailed the Dane by a shot approaching the 18th tee.

But Madsen finished with a double bogey at the Aloha Golf Club in Marbella after an aggressive drive into a lake, allowing Van Dam to steal top spot and clinch her fifth Ladies European Tour title.

The 24-year-old, who made par on the last hole, carded a two-under-par 70 in the final round to finish on 13 under, one stroke ahead of Madsen and India’s Aditi Ashok.

“That’s golf. It was a crazy day. If you would have told me at the beginning of the day that two under was enough to win, I would have said, ‘OK, I’ll take it’,” Van Dam told ladieseuropeantour.com

Spain’s Azahara Munoz, who won the title in 2016 and 2017, was a further three strokes behind in joint fourth position alongside Germany’s Olivia Cowan and Swede Julia Engstrom, while American duo Cheyenne Woods and Christina Kim and Norwegian Marianne Skarpnord tied for seventh.

Ireland’s Leona Maguire was joint 13th on four under, while England’s Liz Young, tied for 16th, was leading Brit. Catriona Matthew was top Scot in 39th on three over par.