Monday 9 May 2016 12:54, UK
Richard Kaufman looks back at Jeunghun Wang's maiden European Tour victory and gives his thoughts on an impressive week for the Ladies European Tour's young stars at the Lalla Meryem Cup.
It was an interesting and unusual week in Morocco, where the weather wasn't as expected for North Africa in May. And the golf took a new twist with the men from the European Tour and the women from the Ladies European Tour playing at the same venue at the same time for the first time.
It was interesting to hear Keith Pelley's comments at the start of the week, where the European Tour's CEO said: "I hope it's the start of an increased collaboration between the two tours.
"We have actually talked about an event in Great Britain already, and we can take this as the blueprint. We know that it can happen."
I don't know what you made of the all-day action from Rabat over the weekend, but I enjoyed being there and commentating on the ladies action.
It was an incredible set up and really well run, but it was a shame that the number of spectators didn't match the ambition of the tournament. Maybe they were put off by the weather! Put that into a UK setting as suggested by Mr Pelley though, say a venue like Woburn, and I can see it being a huge draw.
I am delighted by Jeunghun Wang's win at the Trophee Hassan II. If you had asked me at the start of the year to name a Korean winner to come through in Europe in 2016, I would have picked Wang ahead of Soomin Lee. In fact, if you read my ramblings from two weeks ago, my exact words were: "Watch out for Jeunghun Wang next". Nice to see I get it right sometimes!
Obviously, my attention was on the action on the Ladies European Tour, where I am struggling to think of as impressive a final round performance that I have commentated on in the last 12 months than the one I saw from Nuria Iturrios.
I have to admit that I didn't know that much about her before the week started, and why would I? One of twenty Q-School graduates in the field at the start of the week, it was only her 3rd LET event and 2nd as a pro.
Through wind and rain, she showed a calmness and complete lack of nerves comparable to a certain Lydia Ko. Whilst she might have a lot to live up to Ko's game, her golf on the last day was of the highest quality as she posted a round that was four shots better than anyone else on the day.
Bear in mind she headed to the back nine in a share of the lead for the first time in a pro event, she came home in 31 shots!
It's great to go to an event and watch so much young talent. Iturrios apart, other contenders included a 17 year old American (Angel Yin), 2 teenage amateurs from last year's junior Solheim Cup (Albane Valenzuela and Maria Parra) and those two Danes who battled it out for last year's Rookie of the Year (Emily Kristine Pedersen and Nanna Koerstz Madsen).
I'd love to know what 50 year old Trish Johnson sitting amongst them on the leaderboard made of it all. I'd take a guess that she'd be pretty pleased that there's plenty of new talent to take the ladies' game forward.
