Ana Dawson got her first taste of life at the front of the field in the Ladies European Tour last weekend when she led after the first day of the Tipsport Czech Ladies Open.
Ultimately, struggles on the second day of competition would take the Manx golfer out of contention but the mighty performance in the first round is not to be forgotten.
Out of the gate, the Peel player was two under par through four holes on the first day.
After dropping a shot on the 5th, she recovered with eagles on the par-five 7th hole and on the par-four 13th.
‘I holed out for eagle from about 145 yards as well on the 13th. I can’t remember the last time I holed out from more than 10 yards,’ she commented afterwards.
A birdie on the 15th moved her to six under par and comfortably in the lead by three shots.
The 16th proved to be a problem - and would be for the whole weekend - as Dawson dropped three shots on the hole as a result of losing her ball, which typically was found about 30 seconds too late after she had committed to playing the shot again.
This left her three under par and in a tie for the lead, but this did not affect her confidence as she remained calm to par the 17th and claim a birdie on the 18th to take the outright lead going into the overnight break in play with a score of four under par.
‘It was nice to finish strongly, with a birdie on the 18th.’
After a great performance to start the weekend, day two proved more difficult for the Manx golfer as she finished four over par on the day and therefore level par overall, meaning she fell down the leaderboard.
The final day showed Dawson’s ability once again with five birdies across the course of the day, only dropping shots on two holes but unfortunately both were double bogeys, meaning her score for the day was only one under par.
Dawson ended the tournament in joint 45th at one under par, but now has experience leading the field on the LET and has posted an individual best round.