Filipina golfer Dottie Ardina ruled the 2022 Copper Rock Championship by two strokes in Hurricane, Utah, marking her first win on the Epson Tour.
Cebu’s pride Ardina scored a breakthrough victory with a bogey-free 7 under 65 in the competition held at the Copper Rock Golf Course in Hurricane, Utah, the U.S.A. on Saturday, April 23, 2022.
“I wanted to have fun out there and my goal was 5-under to have a chance. But 7-under is even better,” Dottie Ardina was quoted saying by the Epson Tour in a news release.
“There was never that moment because [my playing partner] Anita [Uwadia] was making a lot of birdies too, so I kind of lost track on the back nine. We were both making birdies to stay close with each other. And I did not want to check the leaderboards,” Ardina added.
The 28-year-old professional golfer from the Philippines pocketed the grand prize of $30,000 (roughly P1.5 million) with her win in the tourney which was dominated by golfers hailing overseas.
Aside from Ardina, the top five golfers were Spain’s Marta Sanz Barrio (67) and Israel’s Laetitia Beck (68) who each finished at 3-under par to share second place, while Jaravee Boonchant of Thailand (68), Anita Uwadia of England, and New Zealander Amelia Garvey (71) ended 2-under to tie for fourth, the Epson Tour reports.
Another Filipina golfer, Clariss Guce, tied for 14th in the final round rankings of the Copper Rock Championship.
“I kept saying to myself, ‘Calm down, calm down, put a good stroke on it and you’ll make the putt.’ I did not look at a leaderboard until No. 18,” said Ardina. “I kept my focus on the line for the putt and as soon as it hit the spot I wanted it, that’s when I did the fist pumps because I knew it was going in.
“I’ve played good golf the last few years and knew I was due. I wasn’t expecting it this week because of the weather, but took advantage of how nice it was today.”
The Epson Tour is the Official Qualifying Tour of the Ladies Professional Golf Association (LPGA) and is also known as the “Road to the LPGA”. Since 1999, the mission of the Epson Tour has been to prepare the world’s best young women professional golfers for a successful career on the LPGA Tour.
Ardina earlier won the Australian Ladies Professional Golf (ALPG) Ballarat Icons Pro-Am Tournament held in Australia in 2020.
2021 was a fruitful year for Filipino golfers as golf sensation Yuka Saso became the first Filipina US Women’s Open champion while Miguel Tabuena won his first professional golf tournament in the United States after claiming the 2021 Idaho Open title.
SEND CHEERS in the comments below to Filipina golfer Dottie Ardina who marks her first win on the Epson Tour by ruling the 2022 Copper Rock Championship in Hurricane, Utah.
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