Golf: Australian fights for crown

Lydia Ko of New Zealand and Kristie Smith of Australia pose with their trophies after day four of the Women's New Zealand Open at Pegasus Golf Club. Photo / Getty Images

Australian golfer Kristie Smith rode the winds of change to secure her third career title and maiden Ladies European Tour (LET) crown at the 200,000 ($360,000) New Zealand Women's Open yesterday.

The 22-year-old from Perth kept her head down to stay under soul-destroying winds at Pegasus and post a four-under-par 68, which was good enough to leave her atop the leader board at 12-under 276 and earn her 33,333.

She had a buffer of three shots on American Tiffany Joh, who birdied the last to sign for a 70, and overnight leader Giulia Sergas, who overcame a horror start to shoot 76.

Auckland amateur Lydia Ko, 13, once again underlined her extraordinary gifts to finish fourth equal on seven-under 281 after shooting 71.

Others prominent by the finish were Englishwoman Melissa Reid, who shot 69 to tie with Ko, while American Reilly Rankin was alone in sixth on 283 after managing a 70. Sharing seventh place were Swede Linda Wessberg and Laura Davies, of England, who shot 77.

Northlander Caroline Bon, who joined the paid ranks two months ago, had reasons to be pleased with herself when a closing 70 was good enough for her to finish in a tie for 15th while amateur Cecilia Cho, 16, had a 72 to end up sharing 33rd place.

Smith had started yesterday at eight-under, five strokes behind and one group ahead of overnight leader Sergas, a 31-year-old bidding to go wire-to-wire and win her maiden career title in her 11th year as a professional.

Unsurprisingly, Smith was pleased with her performance.

"I am over the moon," she said after bouncing off the final green.

"My goal this year was to win on the LET Tour and it's nice to do it early," said Smith, who now wants to lift her sights.

"I think I will have to reassess my goals. They had been to finish in the top five on the LET money list and play well in the majors."

Sergas suffered a miserable start as she coughed up five shots in the blink of an eye.

By this stage Davies, the former world No1 and defending champion, had been gifted the lead but she then carded her own triple bogey.

Sergas showed tenacity to birdie the fifth with a 7m downhill, downwind putt but then battled for traction in winds which gusted to 56km/h, leaving the putting surfaces treacherous.

Smith was chuffed to see she had forged a two-shot lead by the turn and knew her fate was in her own hands.

"To see I had a two-shot lead at the turn was pretty cool. I knew I had to play smart on the second nine and if I did that I would have a good chance coming down the 18th."

Smith never faltered, smashing an eight iron 150m to just short of the green before hitting the flag with her chip for a tap-in birdie.

- NZPA