Golfer Lee-Anne Pace has double cause to remember Helsinki fondly

Third LET tour win and safe return of a lost wallet

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South African golfer Lee-Anne Pace won her third Ladies European Tour title of the season in Helsinki on Sunday, taking the Finnair Masters by three strokes with a 54-hole score of 199 (14 under par).
      Pace went into the final round with a three-stroke cushion after equalling the Tali course record of 64 on Saturday, and it proved to be enough to hold off the challenge of Scotland's Vikki Laing.
      Laing and Pace were together in the final group and both carded 69s on Sunday, and the only moment when Pace had a brief frisson of worry was at the last, after she saw Laing hole out for an eagle two from 150 metres.
     
By this stage, however, Pace was five strokes ahead and knew she would have real difficulty putting six times to lose.
      In the end she made a simple par to collect the cheque for EUR 30,000 and increase her lead on the LET ranking lists.
      She won the Deutsche Bank Ladies Swiss Open in June and the S4C Wales Ladies Championship of Europe just a fortnight ago, and has amassed nearly EUR 250,000 in prize money this season.
      It was a nice turnaround for the South African, whose first visit to the Tali course of Helsinki Golf Club in the 2007 Finnair Masters saw her finishing plumb last and missing the cut.
     
The Finnish entries did not fare as well as last year, when Minea Blomqvist (winner in 2008) came home in third.
      Blomqvist could do no better than a share of 18th this time, and the top home golfer was Kaisa Ruuttila, who carded a final round 69 to finish 2-under in joint 12th place.
     
A second reason for Lee-Ann Pace to recall her visit to Finland with some warmth is that on Friday evening (coincidentally the Night of the Arts, when the city was packed) she managed to lose her wallet, leaving it on the seat in a tram.
      Despite her fellow competitors' assurances that everything would be alright, she feared the worst and rapidly cancelled her credit cards, worrying at the same time how she was going to arrange flights and accommodation for the rest of the season's tournaments.
      She spent a rather sleepless night, but at breakfast she was notified by the police that the wallet and its contents - all intact - had been found by two girls and handed in. A receipt from the hotel had put the police on her trail.
     
The wallet also contained a hand-written note from the finders, and Pace - who certainly benefited from a lower pulse-rate in her round on Saturday - promised to contact them and thank them for their kindness.
      "As a South African it is very hard to believe. Anywhere in the world you don't expect to get your wallet back", she said.
     
On a purely personal level, the return of her belongings probably meant a good deal more to Lee-Anne Pace than Newsweek's recent assertions that Finland is "the best country in the world", and undoubtedly this sort of publicity will also have gone down very well with the members of the Finnish "branding committee": education, health, and quality of life are all very well, but displays of public honesty are pure gold.
      In a nice touch, the competition organisers gave the golfer an extra souvenir at the prize ceremony - a new wallet.
      "Now you can split your money and cards between two wallets, so you won't need to be so stressed if you lose one of them", was the mischievous suggestion.
     


Previously in HS International Edition:
  Blomqvist and Ahokas shine on good day for Finnish golf (1.9.2008)

Links:
  Finnair Masters
  Ladies European Tour

Helsingin Sanomat