MARTINA WINS TOP PRO PRIZE AGAIN
AT HACIENDA DEL ALAMO FESTIVAL

Ireland’s Martina Gillen must be wishing the Ladies European Tour restarted next week. She has found her form quickly at the Hacienda del Alamo Women’s Winter Festival at the five-star resort in south-east Spain – despite the weather being distinctly “un-Spanish."
The cool breeze was even stronger today for the second event of the six-competition, two-week programme than it was for the opening 36-holer but it made no difference to Cavan’s Martina.
She won the Festival Stableford 1 event with a total of 33 points to add the 400 Euros first prize to the 500 she collected on Tuesday evening.
Martina was heading for a very good gross score, despite the wind, when she was one under par with five holes to play.
“I spoiled it a bit by bogeying four of the last five holes but fortunately I had enough points in hand to hold on for victory,” she said.
In fact Miss Gillen still had four points to spare from Welsh rookie pro Natasha Morgan, who was also runner-up to her earlier in the week.
Natasha totalled 29pt, pipping another Welsh player, Lauren Diggle, by 1pt by finishing 3-5-5 (birdie-bogey-par(over Hacienda del Alamo’s tough closing holes which claimed so many victims.
Irish pro Claire Coughlan retired after only a few holes with a nagging shoulder complaint while Scottish rookie Jenna Wilson (Strathaven) took the day off to rest a back injury.

Amber Ratcliffe, the chunky 12-year-old 18-handicapper from Royal Cromer, Norfolk impressed again. She had the best amateur points total fo 32 to win Class 2 for handicaps of 13 and over by a big margin.
Anna Carling (Vale of Glamorgan), playing off four, won Class 1 with 31pt ahead of Sarah Carty (The Island, Dublin) who had 27pt, also off four.
Marion Geoghegan (Navan), playing off 13, won the Senior Section with a creditable 26pt over a Dave Thomas course that is a real test of stamina.