Elsa Svensson shot a final round 69 to finish on 14-under-par overall to clinch her second LET Access Series (LETAS) title of the season at the Iberdrola Calatayud Ladies Open.
The Swede overcame a three-shot deficit to beat compatriot Johanna Sjursen (75) by three strokes and claim the winner’s cheque of €8,000 at Gambito Golf Calatayud.
Svensson has already won on home soil at June’s PGA Championship of Sweden, but displayed a much-heightened outpour of emotions after sinking the winning putt in Spain.
“This means a lot to me,” an emotional Svensson said. “Honestly, I’m a little bit emotional. I’ve been working really hard, obviously like everyone else, but I’m just speechless. I’m really happy.”
Svensson becomes the second player, after fellow countrywoman Moa Svedenskiold, to win twice on the LETAS this season.
With the win, Svensson is up to fourth in the LETAS Order of Merit (OOM) standings and in pole position to claim one of the seven LET cards for 2027.
“That’s why I’m so emotional,” she said. “I feel like this might help me get my card at the end. At the end of the season, there’s more pressure and I’m really glad how I handled it out there with all the pressure.
“The support means everything. My mom was here on the bag caddying, which was nice, and then all my friends came up afterwards and hugged me. That just makes this so much more special.”
Walking up to the 18th green, Svensson had a three-shot lead over Sjursen and both players three-putted for bogey.
Svensson said: “When all my friends came up, that’s when I realised that it was real. I wasn’t paying attention that much to the scores, but towards the last three holes I realised it was really close.
“But I just kept going, didn’t think of it too much, but obviously made a couple mistakes there at the end so maybe that was the nerves.”
Svensson wasted no time to cut into Sjursen’s overnight three-shot lead from the opening par-5 1st hole.
The Louisiana State University graduate reached the green in two and two-putted for birdie, while Sjursen made bogey after pulling her tee shot left of the fairway.
Sjursen briefly restored her two-shot advantage with a birdie at hole 4, before Svensson answered immediately by birdieing the next hole.
After Svensson’s birdie on hole 7 and Sjursen’s bogey on hole 9, the former made the turn with a one-shot lead.
Then came a rollercoaster three-hole stretch from holes 10 to 12 where Sjursen went birdie-double bogey-eagle and Svensson went par-par-birdie.
Svensson extended her lead to three shots with three holes to play as she birdied hole 13 while Sjursen made bogey.
“I’m sad that she (Sjursen) didn’t play her best today,” Svensson said. “But we had a good time, both of us. We laughed, and it was just a good atmosphere in the group, so that helped me to stay calm.”
After pulling her approach on hole 16 left and making bogey, Svensson opened the door for Sjursen to launch a late comeback, but the latter made another bogey the very next hole to fall out of contention.
Since last week’s Terre Blanche Ladies Open, Svensson has had the support of her mother caddying for her.
She added: “I mean, she’s not used to caddying. But just having someone there, it doesn’t matter if they know golf or not, it just means so much. And I think we’re going to celebrate nice tonight.
“My goal this year was to get the (LET) card, even though it was my first year, I wanted to set a high goal. It would mean so much to play on the LET, that’s my end goal.”
Behind Svensson and Sjursen, the quintet of Germany’s Theresa De Bochdanovits (68), England’s Bel Wardle (68), Slovakia’s Michaela Vavrova (69), Finland’s Anna Backman (70) and Spain’s Marina Escobar Dominho (71) finished on nine-under-par in a tie for third place.
The duo of France’s Lauren Holmey (68) and Australia’s Belinda Ji (72) came another shot behind in tied-eighth position.
Norway’s Silje Torvund Ohma (73), who holed out for eagle on the par-5 7th hole, finishing in solo 10th on seven-under-par while English pair Jessica Hall (69) and Thalia Martin (69) and Finland’s Tiia Koivisto (70) were one more stroke back in a tie for 11th.
Further down the leaderboard, in a tie for 14th place on five-under-par, are Iceland’s Hulda Gestsdottir (70), French amateur Alice Kong (70), Switzerland’s Caroline Sturdza (70), United States’ Katherine Schuster (71), Scotland’s Lorna Mcclymont (72) and Spain’s Clara Moyano Reigosa (74).
OOM leader Holmey remains on top in the Race to Islantilla where the top seven in the standings will receive their LET cards for the 2027 season.
With three events remaining, Switzerland’s Natalie Armbruester and Sweden’s Moa Svedenskiold are in second and third place respectively.
Rounding out the top seven behind Svensson are England’s Bel Wardle, Czechia’s Tereza Zapletal Kozeluhova and Germany’s Theresa De Bochdanovits.
The LETAS season resumes next week at the October 20-22 Super Bock Ladies Open in Vidago, Portugal.
Keep up with all the action on the LETAS on our socials – @LETAccess on Instagram and X and LET Access Series on Facebook.
