27th July 2023 | Sunshine Ladies Tour
Reto in pole position at Evian Champs
27 July 2023 – South African Paula Reto fired an opening round of seven-under-par 64 on Thursday to hold a two-shot advantage at the end of the first day of the Amundi Evian Championship at Evian Resort Golf Club in Evian-les-Bains, France.
The 33-year-old began her day from the 10th tee and made a bogey on hole 11 but immediately bounced back with a birdie on 12. Reto then rolled in a birdie on 15 before she really got into a rhythm with birdies on 18 and the first before three on the trot on holes five through seven.
The LPGA Tour winner finished with a flourish, rolling in a birdie on her last hole for a back nine of 30 (-5) and to lead with a total of seven-under-par.
“I had so much fun,” said Reto, who won the 2022 Canadian Women’s Open. “The views and everything, it’s just awesome to be here. I hit some good quality shots beginning of the round and just gave myself opportunities.
“One birdie dropped, and you try to do the same thing over and over and just put yourself in good spots on this golf course. On my second hole, I hit a good shot off the tee, it was just in the bunker. I hit a good shot again, it was just the ball came back and I three-putted.
“I said it’s okay, the next hole is pretty tough and just to get myself in the fairway and give myself an opportunity. When the birdie dropped and the next couple of par saves as well, so sometimes you just stay in it, and you just don’t give up.
“You know, you never know out here with this golf course. Anything is possible. You just got to give yourself the best opportunity to make par and birdie.”
Four players sit in a share of second place with France’s Celine Boutier, American Alison Lee, Thailand’s Wichanee Meechai and New Zealand’s Lydia Ko all on five-under-par.
Ashleigh Buhai opened with a one-over-par 72 to be in a share of 64th.
South African Paula Reto fired an opening round of seven-under-par 64 on Thursday to hold a two-shot advantage at the end of the first day of the Amundi Evian Championship at Evian Resort Golf Club in Evian-les-Bains, France.
The 33-year-old began her day from the 10th tee and made a bogey on hole 11 but immediately bounced back with a birdie on 12. Reto then rolled in a birdie on 15 before she really got into a rhythm with birdies on 18 and the first before three on the trot on holes five through seven.
The LPGA Tour winner finished with a flourish, rolling in a birdie on her last hole for a back nine of 30 (-5) and to lead with a total of seven-under-par.
“I had so much fun,” said Reto, who won the 2022 Canadian Women’s Open. “The views and everything, it’s just awesome to be here. I hit some good quality shots beginning of the round and just gave myself opportunities.
“One birdie dropped, and you try to do the same thing over and over and just put yourself in good spots on this golf course. On my second hole, I hit a good shot off the tee, it was just in the bunker. I hit a good shot again, it was just the ball came back and I three-putted.
“I said it’s okay, the next hole is pretty tough and just to get myself in the fairway and give myself an opportunity. When the birdie dropped and the next couple of par saves as well, so sometimes you just stay in it, and you just don’t give up.
“You know, you never know out here with this golf course. Anything is possible. You just got to give yourself the best opportunity to make par and birdie.”
Four players sit in a share of second place with France’s Celine Boutier, American Alison Lee, Thailand’s Wichanee Meechai and New Zealand’s Lydia Ko all on five-under-par.
Ashleigh Buhai opened with a one-over-par 72 to be in a share of 64th.
24th February 2022 | Sunshine Ladies Tour
Reto on the rise again at Glendower
Paula Reto edged into a two-stroke lead with a gritty putting performance on Thursday after a second round of four-under-par 68 at Glendower Golf Club in the Sunshine Ladies Tour’s Jabra Ladies Classic.
Home in South Africa to visit family, Reto will be heading back to the U.S.A to compete on the LPGA Tour after this week.
She comfortably won the SuperSport Ladies Challenge last week and her five birdies and a bogey on one of the most respected championship courses in South Africa took her to five-under for the tournament and a slim lead over first-round leader Linn Grant of Sweden.
“Today was a little up and down. I felt like the putter didn’t work as well as it has – only on the last few holes, actually,” said Reto.
“I was struggling with the lines a little bit, but the speed has been good. Yesterday as well, so I’ve been hitting some shots close, which is nice. I told myself I’ve got to keep on doing that, keep giving myself the opportunities, and a couple fell, and that changed the momentum a little bit.”
Behind her, Grant carded a level-par 72 with three birdies and three bogeys to stay at three-under for the tournament, and a stroke clear of Nobuhle Dlamini of Swaziland and reigning Investec South African Women’s Open champion Lee-Anne Pace on two-under.
Dlamini came racing through the field with a superb five-under-par 67, which included an eagle, five birdies and two bogeys, and Pace signed for a level-par 72.
In a share of fifth on one-under were Germany’s Caroline Kaufmann, Moa Folke of Sweden and Florentyna Parker of England. Four players tied for eighth finished a further stroke back, including two South Africans in Casandra Alexander and Cara Gorlei. The others on level-par were Nikki Hofstede of France and Germany’s Verena Gimmy.
GolfRSA No 2 Kiera Floyd followed an opening round of 72 with a 76 but managed to hold on the lead in the amateur line-up. The SA Women’s Stroke Play champion will start the final round in a tie for 17th alongside Sunshine Ladies Tour winners Stacy Bregman and Tandi McCallum, who both carded 72, and big-hitting Namibian Bonita Bredenhann, who signed for 74.
Reto got her round going with a run of five consecutive pars before making her first birdie on the par-three sixth. She dropped a shot immediately after that, however, but picked up another birdie on the eighth, and reached the turn in one-under-par 35.
Her homeward nine was bogey-free as she picked up birdies on 13, 15 and 18.
It was a good display for Reto’s family, there to get a rare chance to watch her in action in the flesh. “It’s cool having my family here supporting me,” she said. “I was a little nervous because I usually don’t play with my family watching me.”
She has attempted to put last week’s win behind her as she looks to try and win a second tournament in two weeks. “I tried to think of this week as a new week, because sometimes I get ahead of myself,” she said.
“So tomorrow, I just want to do more of the same thing. I do want to practice a little putting to make sure I can see my lines and get the speed. They’re breaking a little more than last week, and I think I’m still in last week’s putting mode.”
And, although she has yet to win on the LPGA Tour, winning, and contending here in South Africa is invaluable for her. “I’m getting a lot of confidence, especially from being able to see my shots and do what I want under pressure,” she said. “Doing it at home feels like a little bit more pressure, and this is building confidence that I can do it on the LPGA Tour too.”
18th February 2022 | Sunshine Ladies Tour
Reto romps to runaway victory at Sun City
While she wasn’t quite as rampant as in the second round, Paula Reto still romped home by 10 strokes after a closing one-under-par 71 in the Sunshine Ladies Tour’s SuperSport Ladies Challenge, presented by Sun International at Sun City on Friday.
Her five birdies and four bogeys in the closing round at the Gary Player Country Club took her to 13-under-par for the tournament, with Casandra Alexander in a distant second on three-under-par after a closing round of two-over-par 74.
Sweden’s Linn Grant, last week’s winner of the Dimension Data Ladies Challenge, and reigning Investec South African Women’s Open champion Lee-Anne Pace shared third on two-under-par and Stacy Bregman and Romy Meekers from the Netherlands rounded out the top five on one-under.
“It means a lot,” said Reto of her first professional title in her home country.
“I’ve been getting lots of messages, especially from my family. It shows I can do it, and to do it here in my home country makes it that much bigger – one of my bigger wins, for sure.”
Reto battled her way through the front nine, finding things more difficult than they had been all week for her. She bogeyed the par-five fifth but regained that lost shot with a birdie on the very next hole. Bogeys on eight and nine meant she turned in two-over 38.
“There were lots of thoughts bouncing around in my head, and I was just trying to stay calm,” she said. “My breathing was a little off in the first couple of holes, and Casandra played so well. I needed to think whether I was supposed to press then. In the end, I decided to just keep doing what I was doing. After those bogeys on eight and nine, I turned and told myself that it was okay. I focused on the back nine and tried to see how many birdies I could get together.”
She regained some of her swagger with consecutive birdies on 10, 11 and 12. She picked up another shot on the par-three 16th, but then bogeyed the toughest hole on the course, the eighth. She kept her composure to make a closing par and run out an easy winner.
And it was the birdie on 11 which opened the doors for her.
“On 11, I hit a good drive on the correct side of the bunker, which I hadn’t managed to do on the first two days,” she said. “I tried to go for the green in two, but I hit it in the bunker. I got out of that to about a foot and made the putt for birdie. That gave me confidence for the next hole, because that tee shot is pretty tough as well.”
Behind her, after opening with a very threatening three consecutive birdies in the first three holes, Alexander reached the turn in three-under. That meant, at eight-under for the tournament, she was just two behind Reto at that stage and well in the fight. She bogeyed the 10th, which was a setback as Reto had picked up the pace, but she stayed in touch down the stretch until she made two double-bogeys in her final three holes.
Grant pieced together her best round of the week with a four-under 68, also the best score in the final round.
Pace, on the other hand, fought her way around the course to a three-over-par 75.
Meanwhile, GolfRSA’s No 1 ranked amateur Isabella van Rooyen held her own in the international company. The 18-year-old Clovelly golfer secured the Leading Amateur trophy with a joint 14th place finish after posting rounds of 75, 73 and 74.
For Reto, there is more to look forward to.
The fourth stop on the 2022 Sunshine Ladies Tour is the R1-million Jabra Ladies Classic at Glendower Golf Club next week, where her opposition will no doubt be hoping she will be a little less dominant.
“The confidence I’ve gained is pretty big, especially going into next week,” she said, “but I’m still going to be doing my routines and focus on that, because I don’t want to get too ahead of myself. This will be the first time I’m going from a win to another tournament, so I don’t know how it will feel. But I’m just going to enjoy the feeling. I’ll have more family out there as well, and maybe that support will make the birdies fall.”
It’s the home support, but so much more that Reto will carry with her.
“From the minute I got here until now, I’ve just been enjoying it,” she said. “I’m very grateful for the opportunity. I’ve done a little bit every day, from sight-seeing to trying different restaurants… everything is just so nice, and it’s a great culture here. I’m really grateful that I was able to experience it and come back. I was so much younger when I last saw it, and to come back and see how it has improved in so many cool aspects, it’s good to see.”