Golfer twice broke his drive when missing the cup on the Ladies European Tour
Irish Open 2023 ended on September 3 with the championship belonging to Smilla Tarning Soenderby, while Van Dam ranked T2 with Lisa Pettersson. This is the result after Van Dam and Pettersson both lost to Soenderby in the playoff.
In this playoff, Van Dam had to play with a number 3 wooden stick because the driver broke on the way from the green back to the playing area in an open-top tram driven by the Ladies European Tour referee.
The incident occurred when the car turned onto the asphalt road, threaded under the rope limiting the competition area. Van Dam lifted the rope to let the car pass, but it got stuck in the rear, right where the stick bag was. And so, the whole set of "work tools" fell to the ground, the driver's head alone was broken, while it was the only and backup item for the Dutch golfer after the main tree was damaged during the process of following her on the machine. fly as checked baggage to the Irish Open.
No longer having his forte "weapon", the South African golfer had to play with a 3 wooden club in the playoff at the par5 18th hole with Pettersson and Soenderby, because all three had the same score of -16 after four standard rounds, on the par72 course of the castle. Dromoland resort in County Clare, Ireland. On the second shot, Van Dam put the ball 3.3 meters from the hole while Soenderby was 3.6 meters from the target, and Petterson missed the green. From there, Soenderby scored an eagle and eliminated both opponents.
And so, Soenderby won the Irish Open 2023 cup, winning for the first time on the Ladies European Tour (LET), while Van Dam missed the chance to win the sixth title in the first-class European women's golf arena. In the bonus fund of 400,000 euros, Soenderby got 60,000 euros, twice as much as Van Dam and Pettersson.
Van Dam is 27 years old and has been playing professional golf for eight years. In the period 2019-2021, she played the furthest on both the LET and the LPGA Tour. But in the American women's tournament system, Van Dam currently has nearly 70 awards but no cup.
