CASANDRA IS STAR OF SUNSHINE LADIES TOUR
Casandra Alexander was the star performer on the 2025 Sunshine Ladies Tour. In seven straight tournament weeks the 25-year-old from Johannesburg delivered a remarkably consistent standard of performance to comfortably win the Investec Order of Merit. It came with a R200 000 bonus. Her achievements included victory in the Jabra Classic in Cape Town, back-to- back second places in the Joburg Open and Investec SA Women’s Open – both co-sanctioned Ladies European Tour events worth R1.1-million in prizemoney for Alexander – and a course record 64 at Westlake Golf Club, where she had her victory. “The confidence I can now take onto the rest of this year’s LET campaign is second to none,” she said after a closing 66 at Erinvale in the SA Open. “My game is in a good place, so who knows what the future holds.” In Alexander’s four other tournament appearances she had a T-2 in the Standard Bank Open at Durbanville, third-place finishes at Sun City and Blair Atholl, and fifth place in the ABSA event
“round of the year,” a 11-under 60 which contained an eagle and nine birdies, to win the Platinum Ladies Open, her first victory on tour. The 20-year-old turned pro in 2023, and said her game suited a long course such as Blair Atholl. Floyd went on to finish second on the Order of Merit after finishing fifth in the SA Open. Other South African winners were Danielle du Toit at NTT Data Pro-Am, in a playoff at Fancourt over Lee-Anne Pace, and Nadia van der Westhuizen in the SuperSport Challenge at the Gary Player CC. Kaiyuree Moodley won the new R&A Rookie of the Year award, having three top-10s to finish sixth on the OM. The new SA Open champion is France’s Perrine Delacour, the fourth foreign champion in the last 10 years.
at Royal Johannesburg East. She had a stroke average of 68.9. Last year, in the Waterfall City Tournament of Champions at Royal Johannesburg, featuring men and women, she had a 61 to finish tied second behind Louis Albertse. At Blair Atholl she opened with consecutive rounds of 5-under 66 and caught the attention of the gallery when she switched to a pink ball on the back nine of the second round. “I had a slow start to the front nine, dropping at the first,” she said. “I was level through nine and said to my caddie, let’s change our ball to a different colour – a little bit of superstition going on there, I guess. I started firing through the back nine with five birdies.” Alexander was leading into the last round, but Kiera Floyd produced the
Ladies Order of Merit 1 Cassandra Alexander 2 Kiera Floyd 3 Lee-Anne Pace 4 Danielle du Toit 5 Nadia vd Westhuizen 6 Kaiyuree Moodley 7 Thalia Martin 8 Nobuhle Dlamini
Left: SA Open trophy winners. From left, Gia Raad (Jackie Mercer trophy as leading amateur), champion Perrine Delacour, Investec Order of Merit winner Casandra Alexander, and R&A Rookie of the Year Kaiyuree Moodley. Above: Kiera Floyd had 60 to win at Blair Atholl.
112 GOLF DIGEST SOUTH AFRICA
MAY 2025
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