Karen Margrethe Juul put the seal on a magnificent performance with a final round 68 to claim her first Ladies European Tour victory on home soil at the Nykredit Masters in Denmark .
The 30-year-old from Copenhagen finished four strokes clear of England 's Laura Davies and Trish Johnson, at Odense Eventyr Golf Club.
Juul, whose previous best finish in a Ladies European Tour event was fourth in the Deutsche Bank Ladies Swiss Open, proved unstoppable in front of the home galleries and won on a total of 15-under-par 275. The win earned her €30,000 (£20,380).
“Its fantastic,” said Juul. “This is the best place I could ever have won a tournament. I was pretty nervous on the last few holes but my caddy Rasmus helped to keep me cool.”
Fellow Danish player Thomas Bjorn, who paid a visit to the tournament after Saturday's third round, had given Juul a few words of encouragement before her final round. Juul and Bjorn share the same management company.
“He's been really good to me and he told me that I was stupid for not believing in myself,” Juul said. “He saw it coming before I did. After this I'm going to give him a big hug!”
Juul entered the final round with a two stroke lead but forged five strokes ahead by the turn, playing the front nine in 33, with four birdies and a bogey.
Her lead narrowed to two strokes after she bogeyed the 13 th and a fast charging Johnson, playing in the penultimate group, birdied the 16 th .
The deciding hole was the par-five 15 th , where Juul made a crucial eagle. She hit a good fade from the tee down the left hand side of the fairway, before hitting her four-wood into the thick rough at the front of the green and then chipping in with a 56 degree wedge.
“At that point I thought I had won because I was four ahead and the group ahead were on 16 so they only had three holes to play and they would have had to birdie each one,” she said.
“I knew it was coming and so did my coach, James Petts. He called me and told me he had put money on me, only to add to the pressure!”
Juul has been working with a Danish caddie called Rasmus Schultze for the past six weeks and she admitted: “He was brilliant help. He was cooling me down and making some good club selections. But it's his last week on Tour before he has to go back to university so I am going to miss him.”
Juul, a fully qualified chemical engineer, is one of the few players on Tour who use a chest putter and she has been using it since her coach gave it to her to use in the 2004 KLM Ladies Open in Holland . She is in her fifth season with the Ladies European Tour but it is only her second full season as she was training at university for the first three years. Following her win, Juul jumped ten places in the New Star Money List from 20 th to 10 th .
Davies, who had a final round 66, registered her fifth second place finish of the year in Europe, but was happy to remain in pole position on the New Star Money List ahead of France's Gwladys Nocera.
“Gwladys (Nocera) played well again today so I've improved a little bit on her but not enough. I understand she's not playing next week in Austria so I have a chance to go ahead but then I'm not playing in Dubai so she'll have the chance to come past me again. It will be an interesting race to the death,” Davies said.
"I've really enjoyed playing in Europe over the last few weeks and it would be nice to have another chance to win again next week.”
Davies will play in the Siemens Austrian Ladies Open presented by Uniqa ne xt week, which will be her final event of the season in Europe .
Johnson, who had a 68 and tied for second with Davies, claimed 23 rd place on the New Star Money List. She said: “Today I played okay but hopefully I can go one better next week.”
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