St Michael’s Stephanie Kyriacou has learned a valuable lesson and banked some much-needed points in the race to the CME globe finals after her tie for fourth at the LPGA’s Dana Open early this morning AEST.
Playing alongside the eventual champion, Linn Grant, Kyricaou stayed in the mix on her way to a closing round of two-under-par 69, with her only bogey coming at the par-five 17th.
Kyriacou got up and down from around 40 metres at the last to put a punctuation mark on her career-best finish on the LPGA Tour, ensuring a cheque for fourth place of just over AUD 118,000.
The 22-year-old’s previous best finish in America was a tie for 10th, but the two-time winner on the Ladies European Tour, she was developing a taste for being in tournament contention.
“I said to my caddie (fellow St Michael’s member Weiliang Wang) coming up the last that being in the final group is kind of fun. I’ll try and do that more often,” said Kyriacou. “I learned a whole lot about the mental side of golf. How to deal with nerves and all that stuff.”
“I was trying to figure out how to deal with all the nerves and everything that came with being in the final group.
“I found out that adrenaline plays a big part. I was missing the flags a bit long today, but the next time I’m in this position, I have that in the toolbox.
“A lot of things to take away from this week, even though one wasn’t a trophy.”
It was a quiet weekend for most of the other NSW blues in action. Grace Kim finished in 11th place behind Kyriacou at the Dana Championship, with Sarah Kemp in 55th.
Tamworth’s Mark Hensby, already a winner on the Champions tour, finished tied for 21st in the Kaulig Companies Championship at the Firestone County Club in Akron, Ohio.
On the PGA Tour, Shelly Beach’s favourite son Greg Chalmers made a start at the Barbasol only to finish in 66th. Cameron Davis and Harrison Endycott had starts in the Scottish open but failed to make the cut.
Jason Hong continued his excellent form in Canada, finishing tied 6th, while Jordan Zunic picked up a timely 29th place finish at the Euram Bank Open in Austria on the Challenge Tour.
