Jana Melichová made a remarkable return to professional competition at the Ladies Slovak Golf Open after a forced health break. She passed the test before returning to the LET, which for her was the LETAS event in Tálie, with an excellent 2nd-place finish. Patricie Macková (5th) and Tereza Melecká (9th) also made it into the top ten.
Melichová started her preparation for her September return to the LET at the Sella Open in Spain very well. In both of the first two rounds, she made four birdies and three bogeys. After the first round, her score of -1 placed her in the top ten at 8th place, a position she shared with Tereza Koželuhová at that time. After the second round, Melichová repeated a -1 score for the day, bringing her total to -2 and moving her up two more spots to 6th place.
Among the nine Czech players who made the cut on Thursday, Tereza Melecká was the highest, in 5th place. Besides her and Jana Melichová, the other players advancing to the final rounds included Patricie Macková, Tereza Koželuhová, Lucie Váchová, and amateurs Anna Ludvová, Kristýna Malinová, and Natálie Slabá. Šideri Váňová also made the cut on the +8 line. Gabriela Roberta Vítů (+10), Karolína Stará (+12), and Agáta Vahalová (+16) were eliminated after two rounds.
In Friday’s final round, Jana Melichová maintained her “norm” of four birdies per round, but also recorded four bogeys and pars. Her round scores of 71, 71, 72 benefited from the fact that players ahead of her in the standings posted their weakest rounds of the tournament, allowing Melichová to leap to a fantastic 2nd place.
Sharing her excitement with the media, Melichová said: “I’m really happy. If someone had told me a few months ago that I would finish second in my very first LETAS tournament, I wouldn’t have believed it. It’s an amazing result. The conditions were tough too – a challenging course and extreme heat. I’m not yet used to such a schedule, and I got tired quickly in the first two rounds. Today I had a strange start, probably just from excitement. I couldn’t find the right rhythm on the greens and missed a few putts.” She added that her main goal was to get back into competition and prepare mentally and physically: “Finishing second is the cherry on top. Most importantly, my health isn’t troubling me. Even after such a tough tournament, my back feels fine and my swing is excellent. I’m overjoyed.”
Most players in the top ten posted their weakest rounds in the final round, but Patricie Macková was an exception. After 36 holes, with rounds of 72 and 73 and a score of +1, she was in 11th place. In the final round, she was one of only six players to shoot under par, finishing at even par overall and tied for 5th. Macková continued her impressive streak of top-ten finishes on LETAS, moving up one spot on the Order of Merit to 7th.
“Fifth place always counts. It’s a great result, and I was very close to winning,” Macková said, adding: “I know exactly what to focus on now, as I lost many strokes on the par-5s. It was a matter of decision-making, swing execution, and commitment. I have a week to train, and then I’ll head to Ireland and England for the next two LETAS events.”
Tereza Melecká may regret her weaker third round, after being in the top five after the first two rounds. Two double bogeys and five bogeys in the final round resulted in a 77, dropping her to a tie for 9th place.
Lucie Váchová shared her impressions from her first professional tournament, where she finished 23rd: “Tále is a beautiful but tough course, and the scores reflected that. My weakest part was putting, because I didn’t set myself up in good positions, and the greens were very undulating. I also had one bad shot on a par-3 after choosing the wrong club. Otherwise, I rate the tournament positively and hope to maintain this form for the next LETAS events.” Her goal is to finish between 8th and 32nd on the LETAS Order of Merit, which secures a spot in the Final Stage of Q-School.
Tereza Koželuhová also finished tied for 23rd: “I really enjoyed the tournament; the course was nicely prepared, quite challenging… The results were worse than I expected. I played well in rounds 1 and 3 (-1, +1), but in the second round I unfortunately made a few mistakes off the tee and immediately went 6 over par. My game is heading in the right direction, at least that’s how it feels; we’ll see what the next tournaments in Ireland and England bring,” she told the media.
Results of the Ladies Slovak Golf Open LETAS series can be found here.
Author: Tomáš Přikryl (www.cgf.cz)
Photo: Ivan Kelement / LETAS