CRESSY golfer Stacey Keating endured a final-hole scare before clinching back-to-back Ladies’ European Tour (LET) events.
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Keating is this week celebrating her second triumph in three weeks on the coveted tour after posting a one-shot win in the Ladies’ Open de France.
The 26-year-old surged from three shots down entering the final round to beat Italian Diana Luna in a thrilling finish.
She closed with a round of six-under par 64 for a four-round total of 14-under par 266 at Chantaco Golf Club in Saint-Jean-de-Luz, south-west France.
But the event seemed destined for a play-off when Keating bogeyed the final hole, which opened the door for Luna. The Australian sprayed her second shot wide of the green and missed a putt for par to eventually settle for a five.
But Luna also bogeyed the final hole after pulling her tee shot into a bunker and missing her own par putt, which handed Keating the win.
Keating told the LET website she was unfazed by the pressure-packed finale.
“I just enjoy it. I practise so I can be contending. As long as I’m contending I’m happy,” she said.
“Anything can happen in a golf tournament, like we saw there. We were both disappointed to bogey the last but you know, that’s golf and I’ll take that.”
Keating set up her win with an opening-round eight-under par 62, the best round of her almost two years on the tour. The triumph came a fortnight after she won the Tenerife Open in similarly dramatic circumstances.
Keating had to prevail in a one-hole play-off to beat German Caroline Masson on the Canary Islands — her first LET triumph.
And that success followed the lowlight of her career, when she was disqualified from the British Open after signing an incorrect scorecard.
“After the disappointment of the British I was really low in confidence, but obviously not now, so I’m very happy,” she said.
“I had no expectations because I was so disappointed and that hurt me a lot. Nothing on the golf course can hurt me like that now.”
Keating sits ninth on the 2012 LET money list with more than $140,000 prizemoney.
The Ladies’ Open de France was the last LET event in Europe, with the tour heading to China at the end of this month.