The seventh ranked Ladies European Tour player is one clear of the order of merit leader, Marianne Skarpnord, at Aloha Golf Club in Marbella, where the penultimate event of the 2019 season is under way.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s not every day you shoot seven-under, but I knew I was playing well,\u201d said Cowan. \u201cIt was solid and I was two-under on the front nine, so I was trying to stay patient. The second nine went very well, and I holed out (for an eagle) on hole 12.\u201d<\/p>\n
Cowan, the LET Access Series order of merit winner with three titles on that tour in 2015, is still searching for her first win on the LET and she said: \u201cIt\u2019s so close, I can feel it! Hopefully it will come soon. I\u2019ve just got to stay patient and let it happen.\u201d<\/p>\n
Marianne Skarpnord limped round during her 66, then took her shoes off during her post-round interview to relieve the pain.<\/p>\n
\u201cI\u2019ve had a shoe issue all year, so I think I might be on my sixth or seventh pair of shoes and this week I\u2019ve got blisters,\u201d she said, before exposing her heels to demonstrate.<\/p>\n
\u201cI played well today though and hit all the fairways, which is not normal for me, so I\u2019m quite happy with that.\u201d<\/p>\n
The LET order of merit leader admitted that winning the season-long points\u2019 race was on her mind at the beginning of the week, with two events to be played, in Spain and Kenya, but she gave herself a pep talk.<\/p>\n
\u201cLast night I thought, you\u2019re not going to play better thinking about it, so I decided that I\u2019d pretend I\u2019m fourth or fifth and I\u2019m chasing someone\u2026 so I don\u2019t know who\u2019s at the top!\u201d<\/p>\n
Christina Kim lies in third spot after a morning round of 67 and she said afterwards: \u201cI played pretty well today. Missed a few shots, missed a few putts, but that\u2019s pretty typical of me.<\/p>\n
\u201cI played solidly and did my best to avoid any big numbers out there. This course is tricky in that you have to position yourself right. It can be a 310-metre hole, but you can find trouble if you don\u2019t play smart. I did that pretty well today. I just hit one putt eight feet by and missed it on the way back. I couldn\u2019t think of a better place to finish my 2019 season than at this tournament in Spain.\u201d<\/p>\n
Anne Van Dam has taken her driver out of her bag this week and Kim, who played with the defending champion, admitted that Van Dam was hitting her 3-wood 20 yards further than her drives.<\/p>\n
However, the long-hitting Dutchwoman ended the day one stroke behind Kim, in a share of fourth with Karolin Lampert and Cheyenne Woods on four under par.<\/p>\n
Van Dam had an eagle on the 487-yard par-5 16th<\/sup>, which was almost an albatross. After hitting her 3-wood off the tee, she played a 6-iron to tap-in distance from 180 metres to the pin. However, she didn\u2019t give herself the easiest putts all day.<\/p>\n Van Dam said: \u201cIt was a nice calm morning and I hit it well off the tee. I only missed one fairway, by a yard, but towards the green I could have been sharper, but overall, it was a solid day.\u201d<\/p>\n Julia Engstrom, Maha Haddioui, Kylie Henry and Emma Nilsson shot 69s to round out the top 10. Round two begins at 8.15am on Friday.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" The seventh ranked Ladies European Tour player is one clear of the order of merit leader, Marianne Skarpnord, at Aloha Golf Club in Marbella, where the penultimate event of the 2019 season is under way. \u201cIt\u2019s not every day you shoot seven-under, but I knew I was playing well,\u201d said Cowan. \u201cIt was solid and<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4,"featured_media":5261,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_vp_format_video_url":"","_vp_image_focal_point":[]},"categories":[865],"tags":[502,504,503,505,404],"aioseo_notices":[],"aioseo_head":"\n\t\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t