Ashleigh doubles up on trophies

The event was played on Tuesday last week and followed up from her victory in the Chase to the Investec Cup for Ladies played at the Glendower Golf Club on February 27 and 28.

Simon, who is an honorary life member of the Royal Johannesburg and Kensington Golf Club, withdrew from the Mission Hills World Ladies Championship to support the newly-launched Sunshine Ladies Tour.

Her choice paid off when she nailed a six-footer for a birdie at the closing Glendower hole to put the seal on a superb final round seven-under-par 65.

Ashleigh finished on a winning total of nine-under-par 135, four shots clear of fellow Ladies European Tour campaigner Stacy Bregman and five ahead of European number one, Lee-Anne Pace, who matched Bregman’s 68 to take sole third on four under 140.

In a prolific amateur career, Simon won five WPGA events between 2004 and 2007, including two South African Women’s Open titles, but her first professional win came two months after she joined the paid ranks at the Catalonia Ladies Masters on the Ladies European Tour (LET).

Simon lifted the Portugal Masters title on the LET in 2011 and in December, claimed a LPGA Tour card for this season, yet none of these achievements could top measure up to the joy of winning in front of her peers and supportive home crowd.

“Nothing beats winning at home, and to come home to Glendower, where I played for eight years, makes this first win in South Africa so much more special,” she said.

Simon began the final round at Glendower tied for the lead with Tandi von Ruben, but sounded a stern warning to the chasing pack with a four-birdie start.

She knocked in a 15-footer at the eighth for a birdie and erased a three-putt bogey at the ninth by boxing a 10-footer for a birdie at the 10th.

Following up from her Glendower win, Simon rode her confidence to blow away the opposition with a flawless six-under-par 66 and a four shot lead on Norway’s Cecilie Lundgreen at the Ladies Tshwane Open.

Simon was declared the winner when tournament director Pauli van Meersbergen was forced to call an 18-hole result.

“It is definitely not the way I would have chosen to win, but Mother Nature had her own thoughts on the matter,” said Simon.

“I did put myself in a great position in the first round, so I am really pleased with the result, but it would have been great to get out there again,” she added.

The unrelenting rain in the region that wreaked havoc with the Sunshine Tour’s Tshwane Open on the weekend also caused play to be called off on Monday.

Ashleigh was thrilled to add the inaugural Ladies Tshwane Open trophy to her mantle, but even more pleased with her performance in the last three events.

“I shot eight under at the Dimension Data Ladies Pro-Am, seven under at Glendower and six under here, and that is the kind of form I want to take to my first start on the LPGA Tour,” she said.

Later this month Simon will be teeing off in the Ladies PGA Founders Cup.

“I am thankful for the Sunshine Ladies Tour for giving us this opportunity. I had a poor start in Australia, but I started getting the feel back in George. The great thing about these rounds is that I have kept my bogeys to a bare minimum,” she said.