Lucie Malchirand claimed a commanding wire-to-wire victory at the Hauts de France Open to win her first title on the LET Access Series (LETAS).
The Frenchwoman, 24, shot a final round 68 to finish on 13-under overall and five shots clear of Switzerland’s Natalie Armbruester (70) who was playing alongside her in the final flight.
Although Malchirand has won on the LET as an amateur at the 2021 Ladies Italian Open, this is the first time she has won on the LETAS. She has also had victories on the Sunshine Ladies Tour and Santander Golf Tour.
The Aix-en-Provence native had only one word, “amazing”, to describe her emotions after sealing her home victory with a four-metre birdie putt on the closing par-5 ninth hole.
“I’m feeling so, so great,” she said. “It’s been a while that I’m waiting for it. I’m waiting to go back on the LET. I really want it. This season is getting better and better. I’m feeling more confident than a few weeks ago. I think I’m practicing the best I could and it’s working.”
Malchirand has come close to winning on the LETAS this season, having held the final round co-lead at June’s Montauban Ladies Open (T-3) and the solo lead at the Women’s English Open (T-16) with nine holes to play.
“It’s been a while,” she said. “In Montauban and even in England, I was leading. I was waiting for it too much. I saw all my friends that are playing on the LET and winning on LET, so I’m like I want to go back so much.
“I feel maybe it was too much pressure for me in England so today I just tried to keep it cool. It’s good to be in France and to win in France. It means a lot for me because most of my friends live in Paris.
“They followed me today and they text me so many messages. Tonight I can go into Paris and party with them. My best friend had my bag today, he was caddying for me. So that was pretty nice to share it with him.
“I think I was just more relaxed, more into my routines, more into what I know and what to do. And I mean, it was a great, great day.”
Armed with a three-shot lead heading into Saturday’s final round, Malchirand had a steady start with eight pars and one birdie on the par-5 14th on her opening nine.
“It was the same as the days before,” she said. “Nothing changed, that was the plan. I didn’t want to change anything. I played super good the other day, so it was just like following what I know.
“And I think I know the course kind of well because I played it three times. So I just tried to keep it simple, make good shots and not to be too much aggressive. The pins were quite tight.
“I never missed a green with a bad position. I think that was the key today. That helped me make a lot of pars and somehow on the back nine the putts just dropped.”
Malchirand’s lead never dropped below two strokes, and although she made her only bogey of the day on the par-3 2nd, birdies on holes 1, 4, 7 and 9 were enough to secure a comfortable win with plenty of breathing space.
“My dad was looking at the (leaderboard),” she said. “I want to know what’s going on. I love playing with this pressure. That’s what I love. I mean I’m playing golf for this.
“On the seventh green, I saw my name on top of the big leaderboard and I was like, come on! I like that. So yeah, that was nice. I think we are all playing for this. As an amateur, that’s always what I want.
“I was really good when I was leading. I think what’s harder for me is more like to play for the cut, those kinds of weird positions like 28 to 30, I think it can get even boring.
“My advantage is I played a lot of times with this pressure and that’s what I really, really like and I think that makes me great.”
Despite the commanding lead, Malchirand, who rated her performance this week “ten out of ten”, only felt sure of her victory when she found the fairway with her tee shot on the par-5 18th.
“I was just trying to hit 18 like super soft,” she said. “I hit a lay-up, then another lay-up. I was like please, don’t do anything stupid. Then I had a four-metre putt for birdie. I putted with no pressure. I was like if you make it, that’s amazing, if you don’t that’s still okay.
“Everything was great. I worked a lot on my driving, that’s the part of my game that struggled the most. So it was nice this week to reach kind of every fairway. That was kind of the key this week.
“This course requires to be accurate from the tee mainly. If you have the fairway, you did like a big part of the job. We’re in the second part of the season now and we had three weeks off.
“During these three weeks, I was just like thinking of what can I do to like win a tournament and do the best I could. And I think I found a good solution this week.”
Malchirand’s win has given her a leg up from 40th to ninth in the LETAS Order of Merit (OOM) standings. The top seven on the OOM come the end of the season will earn their LET cards for the 2027 season.
“We still have a lot of tournaments to play,” she added. “The season is not done. We still have a lot of time to play, a lot of shots to play, a lot of fairways to touch. It’s a long way and we’ll see at the end of the season, but I can’t wait to be on LET.”
While Armbruester came short once more, her fourth second-place finish on the LETAS this season, she has tightened her grip on third place in the OOM and is in a good position to claim her LET card for next season.
The Swiss golfer shot rounds of 70, 68 and 70 to finish on eight-under overall, five strokes behind Malchirand.
Wales’ Ffion Tynan fired a stunning final round 67 to finish in solo third on six-under overall, while Sweden’s Louisa Carlbom (69) came a further stroke behind in fourth place.
Ireland’s Canice Screene (74) also recorded her best finish of the season to come fifth at four-under overall, while the quartet of Sweden’s Elsa Svensson (71), Australia’s Hannah Reeves (72), Finland’s Anna Backman (72) and United Arab Emirates Hyeonji Kang (72) finished in a tie for sixth at three-under overall.
OOM leader Lauren Holmey (72) finished a further stroke behind at two-under for the tournament in tied-10th place alongside English trio Rebecca Earl (70), Thalia Martin (73) and Jessica Hall (74), Switzerland’s Tiffany Arafi (71), Finland’s Tiia Koivisto (74) and Scotland’s Lorna Mcclymont (74).
The LETAS season resumes next week at the September 16-18 Lavaux Ladies Open in Puidoux, Switzerland.
Keep up with all the action on the LETAS on our socials – @LETAccess on Instagram and X and LET Access Series on Facebook.
