At the age of 25, Czech professional Sára Kousková has once again pushed the boundaries of her career success. Among the LET elite that gathered this weekend for the “event of the year” La Sella Open, she was tied for the lead after the second round and finished the tournament with a fantastic 3rd place, her best career result.
Sára Kousková had to fight her way to her lifetime result against the absolute top of the Ladies European Tour, attracted to the most popular tournament of the season among female players by the extremely generous amount of 1 million euros in prize money.
In the first round, the best of the Czech players was Tereza Melecká, who finished round -3 as tied 9th and Sára Kousková, just a shot worse, tied 17th.
On the second day, the already 25-year-old Kousková produced a fantastic round of -5 with six birdies and one bogey in the scorecard and such a result catapulted her to the top of the leaderboard, which she shared with Australia’s Kirsten Rudgeley and Italy’s Virginia Elena Carta. Ahead of the final weekend, Kousková was understandably very happy with her first two rounds, “I think it was two very solid days with a lot of steady golf. It was already looking very good yesterday and today the short game was slightly sharper, which brought me a scoring on every par five. We made great decisions on shots into the green and the putting worked as well. So I’m happy that even the minor tweaks and changes from the previous two weeks showed up so nicely here. I want to go into the next rounds relaxed and patient because the course is quite complicated. You can score on every hole, but you can also lose a lot.”
The tournament has struggled with interruptions in play due to threatening thunderstorms and it was no different in the third round. At the time of the suspension, Sára Kousková was still shining with nine shots under par at the top of the leaderboard and had an eagle on the par-5 No. 2 hole. But then her game lost some rhythm. “After resuming play, I got a little nervous and my hands got a little stiff. It was a turning point when I slowed down and started making mistakes off the tee. After that it was just a lot of saves and I’m happy with how the short game and putting worked. But then it was also a great comeback and a result under par, which I appreciate,” Kousková described her round on Saturday.
Sunday’s final round was already a a smooth and relaxed performance from Kousková, as she made six birdies to add to her clean scorecard. On the closing holes, she held off a late charge from a tied fourth position by home player Ana Pelaez Trivino and Sweden’s Sofie Bringner, while Kousková kept up a theoretical chance of victory until the end, given the mistakes of the German leader and later winner Helen Briem and the French second overall Pauline Roussin-Bouchard. However, this did not happen and Sára Kousková could start receiving congratulations from friends and fans for her lifetime result of third place on the Ladies European Tour. The Czech pro has another goal ahead of her in the form of second place or even triumph at the LET.
“I am very happy, we did a great job all week. I’m happy how the preparation from the last few weeks, when we needed to clean up some mistakes, has shown itself and now it’s absolutely fantastic. I have to thank the whole team for that.”
Third place at the La Sella Open earned Kousková €60,000, which is even €15,000 more than the amount the winner of the regular LET tournament will receive this season. Similarly, the high score for the La Sella Open moved her into the top 20 on the LET’s Order of Merit, now sitting at 17th. “It’s great. I’m also happy that when we needed to reflect on the whole period, when the Olympics was obviously the biggest goal, but we also needed to fixate on something new, and we set as a new goal to move as high as possible in the Order of Merit, that we’ve been able to do that. And today’s placement helped us to do that significantly,” concludes Sára Kousková with satisfaction.
Czech golf had an unusually wide representation of six players in Spain, but Jana Melichová, who withdrew after the first round and Kristýna Napoleaová, Tereza Melecká, Tiphani Knight and Šideri Váňová did not make the cut.
Results of the La Sella Open Ladies European Tour series can be found here.
Author: Tomáš Přikryl (www.cgf.cz)