• Whitney Hillier third in Slovakia
Whitney Hillier

WA`s Whitney Hillier had her best finish in her first LET season by finishing 3rd at the Allianz Ladies Slovak Open presented by Respect.

The 22-year-old from Perth said: “I had a nice drive on the 18th, a nice 5-wood, it hit the slope and ran up to about five feet. I was like, ‘I’m going to hole this,’ and I did. I was pushing for third place and I did it, so I was quite happy about that.

“Hopefully I’ll get into the (Ricoh Women’s British) Open now. That was my only incentive for the week, really. If I make the Open I’ll bring my parents over. I was really, really keen for this week.”

Former European No.1 Gwladys Nocera gave herself a confidence lift when she won her first Ladies European Tour title for five years on Sunday.

The 38-year-old Frenchwoman, whose last tournament victory was at the 2008 Madrid Ladies Masters, took the Allianz Ladies Slovak Open presented by Respect with a four stroke margin of victory over South African Lee-Anne Pace.

“I’m very, very happy and pretty emotional,” said a tearful Nocera after claiming her 11th LET title. “It’s been a while since I lifted a trophy. It was hard again today. I don’t feel like I’m hitting the ball like I should and I don’t feel that I’m hitting the ball well enough, but I tried to stay patient and draw on my experience.”

First round co-leader Nikki Campbell finished with 1 over par (73) to be tied 7th and Rebecca Artis had a 5 over par (77) to finish tied 27th.

The next LET event is the Open de España Femenino “Madrid 2020”, taking place at Club de Campo Villa de Madrid, on July 18-21.

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