Top of the Ladies European Tour
European number one Laura Davies will seek to stay at the top of the Ladies European Tour’s, or LET, earnings list with a strong performance at this week’s Turkish Airlines Ladies Open at the National Golf Club in Belek, Antalya. The event started Thursday with a Pro-Am event in which Davies paired up with Bülent Göktuna, president of the National Golf Club and Mineks International. The real competition, meanwhile, starts Friday with the first round.
The top 50 players after two rounds will compete in the final round Sunday for a prize fund of 200,000 euros and a first prize of 30,000 euros. It is the second time that the Ladies European Tour has visited Turkey, after the inaugural event in 2008, when Sweden’s Lotta Wahlin won by 12 strokes.
Davies, seven times the European number one and with 73 career victories to her credit, including four majors, will visit Turkey for the first time in her 26-year career. With Wahlin unable to attend due to health problems, Davies will be the player to watch. The English star has won in 17 different countries all over the world, including New Zealand, where she most recently won in February.
“I’ve never been to Turkey before but I’ve heard it’s a tough golf course,” said Davies. “I’d like to do well on the Henderson Money List. I’ve had a great start to the year and I missed the tournament in Mexico to play the next four events in Europe. I’m playing Turkey, Germany, Slovakia and the Netherlands. At the end of last year I played really well and it’s really boosted my confidence.”
Davies, the only player in Solheim Cup history to have played in all 11 matches since 1990, will face a formidable field of players, who are traveling to Turkey from 22 different countries. Other stars on the course will include Anja Monke from Germany, who won her third LET title at the Lalla Meryem Cup in Morocco recently, elevating her to second position on the Henderson Money List, as well as Carin Koch from Sweden, ranked third in Europe after finishing as runner-up in Morocco.
Koch is making a welcome return to Europe this year after a successful run on the LPGA Tour, where she has won almost $4.5 million. Other players to watch include Becky Brewerton from Wales, Iben Tinning from Denmark, Paula Marti from Spain, Christel Boeljon from the Netherlands and Melissa Reid from England.
Henrietta Zuel, who played her first professional golf tournament at the National Golf Club as an 18-year-old in May 2008 told the LET’s official website that she is excited to be playing at the Turkish Airlines Ladies Open.
Zuel is determined to overcome the disappointments of the last two years. “I’m really excited to be coming back to Turkey and I’m looking forward to testing my game out,” Zuel said. “It’s my first full year on the tour and Turkey and Germany are my first two events in a row traveling from week to week so I’m really excited to be playing the full year.”
Zuel, who first played on the LET in Portugal at the age of 13, had a challenging start to her career as a professional golfer. The teenager, hailed as Britain’s answer to Tiger Woods, was reliant on invitations in her first year due to not being a tour member, which meant that her earnings from the S4C Wales Ladies Championship, where she tied for third, did not count towards the LET’s Henderson Money List.
Despite being given a special dispensation to join the tour in late 2008, she missed out at Qualifying School for 2009. However, she played in six events, before sustaining a back injury. At tour school for 2010, she finished 34th, which has given her the opportunity to compete full time and in March, she earned a tie for fourth place at the Lalla Meryem Cup in Morocco.
It seems that her perseverance is beginning to pay off. “Starting off this year with a really good performance meant a lot to me,” she said. “It’s definitely been a couple of difficult years. I’ve had a very difficult personal life lately, which I wouldn’t want to elaborate on but it’s definitely been a big reason for my not-so-successful first couple of years. I’m looking forward to putting it all behind me.
“I’m really looking forward to this year. Personally, I’ve tried to work as hard as I can to try to reach my potential a bit more than I have been doing in recent years. If I do that and everything I possibly can I’d be really happy. I’d like to be more consistent and be in and around the top ten each week. I’ll play all the tournaments, and I’m thinking of going to LPGA Q School, but that’s at the end of the year.”
Gradually, Zuel is learning to compete on the LET, but there are three young English women in the top 15 on the Henderson Money List all jostling for position. Zuel, Reid and Florentyna Parker are ranked 12th, 13th and 14th respectively.
