Cowan claims maiden LET title at Hero Women’s Indian Open

Germany's Olivia Cowan produced a brilliant final round of 68 (-4) to win the Hero Women’s Indian Open at the DLF Golf and Country Club to claim her maiden win on tour in her 96th start.

With no less than 27 Top-10 finishes before this week, she finally entered the winner’s circle after totalling 13-under 275 to win by three shots over home favourite and final round leader Amandeep Drall and Sweden's Caroline Hedwall, who dropped a shot on the 18th to slip from solo second to joint second with the Indian.

Cowan picked up the biggest cheque of her career of US$ 60,000 since coming on the Tour in 2015, the 26-year-old was clearly emotional at the prize presentation. She said, “I have come close a few times, but I am so happy to get over the line. I love coming here and this is going to be one of my most memorable moments and I will come back again to try and win this Trophy again.”

“I was quite relaxed. To be honest. The whole weekend. I wasn’t really thinking of winning this time. I just wanted to go out there and have a good mindset and just play good golf. I was playing good golf so I just decided to trust that and come out today and just see what happens.”

After starting the final round one shot behind home favourite Drall, she was still one behind at the turn and tied with Hedwall for second. Hedwall birdied the 11th and Cowan birdied the 12th to join Drall at the top. The trio playing together parred the next two holes.

With four holes left and three players tied at 11-under, a play-off looked imminent, before Cowan holed a crucial birdie on the Par-5 15th. With Drall dropping a bogey on the same hole, Cowan was sole leader at 12-under, while Hedwall was 11-under and Drall fell to 10-under.

From there she did not look back, as her two challengers found it difficult to find a birdie, Cowan almost nailed the title with yet another birdie on the dangerous 17th to move to 13-under, two clear of Hedwall and three ahead of Drall.

But the German wasn’t taking anything for granted even with a two-shot lead heading down the last, with the memories of losing a similar lead at the Aramco Team Series – Jeddah last year in her mind: “I was aware of what can happen even on the last hole,” she said with a smile.

It was a great week for the home golfers, who had four players in Top-8 with the Tokyo Olympic fourth-place finisher Ashok in fourth place, while Gaurika Bishnoi and Vani Kapoor capped her tenth straight cut in the tournament with a T8, while T6 place was Bishnoi’s best at the Hero Women’s Indian Open.

Victory for Cowan sees her move up to 19th in the 2022 Race to Costa del Sol standings, with 890.37 points from 13 events.