Heath faced the final day leading the standings and managed to withstand the pressure throughout the round to close out the tournament and lift the trophy at La Sella Golf Resort.

Italian Alessandra Fanali carded an extraordinary -8, the best round of the day, to finish as runner-up, although it wasn't enough to catch Heath. England's Alice Hewson completed the podium in third place. The highest-placed Spaniard was Ana Peláez, with -4.

“I was very, very nervous. I’d been in that position before and it hadn’t gone well, so I knew how things could go wrong. But today it wasn’t like that,” Heath said. “My caddie, Alex, kept me very calm; we stayed in our own little bubble and just played golf, whatever the outcome.”

“It was a very peculiar situation: yesterday I didn’t play any golf, I only practiced, which is a bit strange.” “I’m definitely going to learn from this experience; I need tonight to process what I did well and what I didn’t,” he added.

Alex, Heath's caddie, said: “I knew if we stopped the last three holes, we'd probably be fine. Charlotte was world-class all week; she told me several times that she was nervous, but I was a little nervous too.” “It's very easy, when you have a lead, to think 'from here on we can play it safe,' but that actually puts you in a worse position. She had done all her work all week, and you just have to maintain that and keep going. She did a great job in that regard today.”

“I didn’t say anything to Charlotte until after she approached the green; I just said, ”You have two putts to win.’ You don’t want to put too much emphasis on the leaderboard, because then they might overthink things.”

The fourth edition of La Sella Open was finally played over three days instead of the four initially planned, after the breaks caused by the rain on Friday and the electrical storm on Saturday morning, as decided by the organization to ensure that the championship was resolved with all the guarantees for the players.

Thus ends the fourth edition of La Sella Open, focused on the well-being of the players from beginning to end: no sponsors imposing conditions, no Pro-Am, with a physiotherapist and psychologist at their disposal, all expenses covered during the week of competition and financial aid even for those who do not make the cut — a tournament by and for the players.

SOURCE: Tournament Organization

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