Ladies European Tour

County professional Meghan MacLaren came agonisingly close to her second victory of the season on the Ladies European Tour as she lost a play-off to Ines Laklalech in the Lacoste Ladies Open de France in Deauville.

The Wellingborough golfer, who triumphed in the Australian Women’s Classic in late April, carded scores of 65, 67 and 67 to finish tied with Laklalech – three strokes clear of the rest of the field.

Unfortunately MacLaren found trouble with her tee shot on the first play-off hole and, after taking a penalty drop, was only able to make six, meaning her opponent’s bogey five was enough to claim the title.

MacLaren, who has struggled for results in recent weeks after making some swing changes, said: “Those are the fine margins that we win or lose by and it’s a golf tournament, so it happened to me today.

“Ines is a great player. We played together at Q School and she’s gritty and not going to go away. She deserves it today.

“Scores of 65, 67 and 67 were not quite enough, but it was a special French Open. There are different types of lows in this game, but I’ll take this one over the past few weeks. Thanks for the support.”

With five events still to be played on the 2022 LET schedule, MacLaren has moved up to sixth in the Race to Costa del Sol Rankings.