Coffs Harbour (Australia), March 16 (IANS) Avani Prashanth shot a superb 5-under 65 in the final round of the Australian Women’s Classic and registered a solid Top-15 finish in her maiden season on the Ladies European Tour. With an earlier 72-70 she totalled 3-under 207 and finished six shots behind the winner, Manon De Roey who birdied the final hole to pip Cara Gainer to the title.
Pranavi Urs, who was the other Indian to make the cut, shot 72 and ended at T-65. Diksha Dagar had missed the cut. Avani started on the tenth and birdied the 10th, 12th, 14th, 17th and the 18th. She added a sixth on the second and was 6-under and looking at Top-10 finish. That’s when she dropped shots on the third and the fifth but picked a last one at the seventh.
Avani, a Top-10 finisher on her home event, the Indian Open, in the past while being an amateur, was pleased with the final day show and said, “It was a good final day as I had been struggling with reading the greens the past two days. Finally fixed it out today so it was it was very good. Holed short one on the first, the tenth of the course. Then from there it was quite good like I made a lot of long putts.
“I don’t think I had too many approach close. Of the seven birdies I hit two approaches actually like within eight feet and everything else was like 15-20-25 feet putts. That’s what you needed to shoot low here. Because of the greens being hard you weren’t able to get close and because of the wind being up too. So, I so glad I got it together and am are looking forward to next week.”
For the winner, Manon it was the third Ladies European Tour (LET) win and jumped to second in the 2025 Order of Merit. De Roey made a clutch birdie at the 18th hole and became a three-time LET winner.
On a nervy final day, the Belgian kept her cool late on dialling in an excellent approach to seven-feet at the par-4 18th before sealing the putt for LET victory number three.
The victory is De Roey’s third on the LET after she won the 2022 Aramco Team Series – Bangkok title and 2024 Investec SA Women’s Open.
In solo second finished Gainer on eight-under par after her hot finish. The young star in the making, Wongras, finished the week in third on seven-under par. Sweden’s Kajsa Arwefjall fired a 66 (-4) to share fourth alongside Kemp on six-under par. The home favourite returned to action this week for the first time since breaking her leg seven months ago. An incredible comeback story.
Next up the LET continues its co-sanctioned Aussie swing with the WPGA Tour heading south to Wollongong for the Ford NSW Women’s Open.
–IANS
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