LUNA HOPES TO ECLIPSE OPPOSITION AGAIN IN LADIES GERMAN OPEN

  NEWS RELEASE FROM LADIES EUROPEAN TOUR

By BETHAN CUTLER, LET Media Manager

Italian Diana Luna will be aiming to replicate her flawless performance of last year when she tees up at the UniCredit Ladies German Open presented by Audi at Golfpark Gut Häusern near Munich from Thursday.

Luna created a new Ladies European Tour record when she became the first bogey-free winner of an LET event in this tournament 12 months ago.

Not since the LET’s hole-by-hole records began in 2000, had there ever previously been a winner on the LET who had played bogey-free golf for 72 holes.

Luna carded 24 birdies for the tournament and no bogeys for a total score of 24 under par 264 at Golfpark Gut Häusern in Munich, scoring flawless rounds of 67, 67, 65 and 65.

However, she insists that her focus will be on the present, this week.

“Of course last year was very, very special and I will never forget it, but I’m now focusing on this year’s tournament and playing the golf course again,” Luna said. “Nothing says that I can’t do that again and nothing is impossible, but of course it’s a different week and a different tournament and I will look at it that way and do my best. I have great memories but I’m focusing on this week.

“I think I have been playing pretty well and did a good job at the last tournament. I have confidence in my game and so of course I feel I have a good chance.”

There are 17 of the Ladies European Tour’s top 20 players in the tournament field all vying for the €52,500 and Audi A5 convertible first prize.

Sandra Gal, pictured above in demand for interviews by the German media,  has returned to Germany from Orlando after making her debut in The Solheim Cup as a member of the victorious European team in Ireland.

The 27-year-old from Dusseldorf feels that she can still win the event, despite having inflamed the tendon under her left foot when jogging a week-and-a-half ago, which has limited her practice coming into the event.

“I’m taking it day by day and seeing how much I can practice,” Gal said. “I worked really hard on my game the two weeks that we had off before the Sybase matchplay event. Unfortunately I got injured on my left foot and I couldn’t practise last week almost at all and this week I’ve got to take it easy, so that’s a bit of a minus but I still think my game is good and it’s on the up.”

Gal is the highest ranked player in the field at 40th in the world followed by fellow European Solheim Cup stars Sophie Gustafson, who is 49^th. 

Gustafson is making her first appearance in the tournament, which is being staged for the fifth time at the same venue.

Playing a Pro Am in unseasonably hot weather on Wednesday, she said: “I wouldn’t enter a tournament if I didn’t feel I could win it and that would certainly give my season a great boost.  It’s a nice course and a very good set up but it all depends on what game shows up tomorrow morning and I think I have a fairly good chance.”

Australian Karen Lunn, the winner of the Lalla Meryem Cup 2012, ranked third on the ISPS Handa order of merit, is also in the tournament field along with Scotland’s Carly Booth, who won her maiden title three weeks ago at the Aberdeen Asset Management Ladies Scottish Open.

Other high profile players in the field include Swedes Pernilla Lindberg and Helen Alfredsson, South African Lee-Anne Pace, Wales’ Becky Brewerton, Gwladys Nocera of France and Iben Tinning from Denmark. 

In addition to Gal (Dusseldorf), the home contingent includes professionals Caroline Masson (Dusseldorf) and Anja Monke (Hanover) as well as Elisabeth Esterl (Munich) and Steffi Kirchmayr (Nuremberg), playing in the event for the first time as a pro. Local player Martina Eberl-Ellis is competing again after maternity leave, however, this will be her last appearance at the UniCredit Ladies German Open as an active player, as she has announced her intention to end her career at the end of 2012.