England’s Cara Gainer secured her first Ladies European Tour (LET) victory after defeating India’s Diksha Dagar in a playoff at Lalla Meryem Cup in Morocco.

Going into the final day, only a two-shot difference separated the top 10, making it a tight leaderboard with lots of players in contention to win the season opener.

Gainer started the day in T5 and produced a solid final round of 69 (-4) at Royal Golf Dar Es Salam. This marked her third visit to the tournament having previously come T30 in 2024 and T49 in 2023. The maiden LET winner will take the full 500 points to sit top of the Order of Merit.

The 29-year-old rolled in birdies on holes two, four, and eight, before another three off the bounce on the back nine. She dropped her only two shots of the day on the front nine.

“First tournament back of the year, you can’t really ask for any better,” said Gainer. “I was aware when we started how many people were in with a shout, but I knew there’s a lot of good players. I knew people were going to be shooting low scores, so I just wanted to keep in my own bubble, and I thought if I had shot, maybe three or four under, there could be a chance. Then, when I started to birdie the last few, I thought hold on a minute, this could really be real.”

A positive week for the home contingent, as Ines Laklalech and 15-year-old amateur Sofia Cherif Essakali were two of the five Moroccan players to make the cut in Rabat.

Next week, the LET heads to Riyadh for the PIF Saudi Ladies International which takes place from February 13-15.

Main Image: LET