A “let’s go!” Raising her arms served as a spring to launch Carlota Ciganda’s adrenaline into the afternoon sky of the Real Club Guadalhorce in Málaga. The best Spanish golfer in history had won her second Andalucía Costa del Sol Open de España by Oysho, scoring for the Ladies European Tour, another title in national territory, in the country that has seen her name inscribed in different awards for two decades. .
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Ciganda, 33 years old, had been bathed in champagne after having missed a short putt, she had margin, on the 18th hole and having sealed a card of 71 strokes with a bogey. But that penultimate blow had not altered the script that rewarded an athlete who, above all, is “a warrior,” as she recognized before the television cameras.
“The start was not easy at all. With four shots it is not easy, it had been a long time since I saw myself at the top and my nerves got the better of me. But I started to hit good shots and made a couple of birdies.” That hesitant start allowed the Belgian Manon de Roey to chase her at 17 under par with six holes remaining. The inertias were totally different. Schilde’s had four birdies in a row on an immaculate day. It would end in 68 strokes, with no more successes.
The Navarrese needed something to clear her mind and she saw in Vicente Rubio, the president of Finca Cortesín, that lever to change her thoughts. He remembered the 8 iron he hit to tie the Solheim Cup on that course last year and while his opponent stopped dead, Ciganda made two birdies in five holes to open a two-stroke distance that was now definitive.
The Spanish golfer, congratulated on the green by her parents Jesús and María Jesús, thus became the third golfer to win the Spanish Open twice, after her friend Azahara Muñoz and the Dutch Anne van Damme and completes a sequence of victories , one per year, from 2021.
In addition, Andrea Revuelta, 18 years old, also with 71 strokes finished in fifth position, six strokes behind the champion. An outstanding result and the best of his career in the professional field of this gem of the amateur field.
