SUN CITY: Indian golfer Ridhima Dilawari's 2023 season got off to a good start as she finished tied-13th at the SuperSport Ladies Challenge in the Sunshine Ladies Tour's season-opener.
Ridhima shot 73 in the final round after 76-71 in the first two rounds.
The other Indian player in the field, Pranavi Urs missed the cut earlier on.
Casandra Alexander cruised to a six-stroke victory as she ended with a closing birdie on the 18th at Gary Player Country Club.
The victory starts her year in the best way possible after a solid 30th place on the Ladies European Tour's Race to Costa del Sol last year.
Norway's Dorthea Forbrigd made the most impressive attempt to haul Alexander in with a five-under-par 67 including six birdies and a bogey, lifting her a shot clear of third-placed Lily May Humphreys of England who was on two-under after a closing level-par 72.
Camile Chevalier of France and South African Cara Gorlei shared the fourth spot on one-under, and five-time Investec South African Women's Open champion Lee-Anne Pace slipped to a closing one-over 73 to finish in a share of seventh on one-over.
Malaysia's Genevieve Ling, Nicole Garcia and Corinne Viden (SWE) round out the top 10 on three-over.
The local circuit travels to the Southern Cape next for the Dimension Data Ladies Pro-Am.
The event received a mammoth bump in prize money – from R600 000 to R2.5-million and will this year will be contested on the Outeniqua and Montagu courses at Fancourt, running concurrently with the Sunshine and Challenge Tours' Dimension Data Pro-Am.
