IT WASN'T the fairytale return to Kent she hoped for but golfer Karen Stupples, from Deal, still delighted the hordes of local followers who turned out to cheer her on at Chart Hills in the Ladies English Open over the weekend.

She still finished a fine third in the European Ladies Tour event and came close to taking second place on the last hole on Sunday.

She slid a fine birdie attempt just wide of the lip while Australia's Joanne Mills grabbed her chance to snatch second place with her birdie putt.

But noboby in the field could do anything about popular first time European Tour winner Maria Hjorth who played just immaculate golf over the three days to set a new Tour record of 19 under par to be a convincing winner as the English Open returned to Tour schedule after a nine year absence.

The Swede, like Stupples now based on the American tour, was just superb with a course record 64 on the last day following in Lora Fairclough who had also shot a 64 earlier in the afternoon.

However, Stupples was just delighted with her return to Kent having made the dash from the US Ladies Open championship and never let the Swede have it all her own way.

Every time Stupples went on a birdie blitz, though, the tall, blonde Hjorth responded in kind, never allowing the Kent girl to close the gap.

The 31-year-old is now enjoying a week off at home in Deal and meeting up with old friends. She also plans a few rounds at Cinque Ports before going to the Evian Masters in the build up to the Weetabix British Open at the start of next month.

She said: "I have been happy with the way I was playing. I had a steady first day (with a round of 67) but had a rollercoaster second round. It was not helped by the rain delay but at least the rain softened the course which was why the scoring was so good.

"Players were able to fire right at the pins and would have played very differently if it had been like the practice round on Tuesday when the greens were much firmer."

Bearsted's Danielle Masters made a solid start to her new professional Tour career missing the cut by just one shot after rounds of 72 and 74.