Gemma Dryburgh Archives - Golf Digest Middle East

Everything you need to know about Suzann Pettersen’s four European Solheim Cup captain’s picks

Golf Digest Middle East — Wed, 23 Aug 2023 06:39:42 +0000

Emily Kristine Pedersen. ASLI

Suzann Pettersen has announced her four captain’s picks to round out the home team that’s trying to win an unprecedented third straight Solheim Cup for Europe next month in Spain. Much like the eight automatic qualifiers who locked up their spots two days earlier, Pettersen chose experience along with a fresh face, taking one rookie (Gemma Dryburgh) and three veterans (Madelene Sagstrom, Caroline Hedwal and Emily Kristine Pedersen). With the matches set for Finca Cortesin Resort in just four weeks (September 22-24), here’s what you need to know about the newest members of Europe’s Solheim Cup squad.

Madelene Sagstrom

Madelene Sagstrom. Jack Thomas

This is the 30-year-old’s third Solheim Cup, though it’ll be the first time she’ll play the event in Europe. The Swede was a stand-out on the Epson Tour, winning three times in 2016 and earning her LPGA Tour card for the 2017 season. She has won once on the LPGA Tour and is currently ranked No. 42 in the Rolex World Rankings. Her overall Solheim Cup record is 2-4-0.

Emily Kristine Pedersen

Emily Kristine Pedersen. Charlie Crowhurst/R&A

This is Pedersen’s third Solheim Cup as well and her first start in Europe, too. You may remember her as the player who holed the winning put for the Europeans when they closed out their upset victory at Inverness Club in 2021. The 27-year-old Dane has won five LET events in her career, including four in 2020 alone. Notably, she is one of the longest hitters on the LPGA Tour, averaging 273 yards off the tee. Her career Solheim Cup record is 3-4-0.

Caroline Hedwall

Caroline Hedwall. Getty Images

Hedwall is the most experienced of Pettersen’s picks, set to make her fifth appearance. The 34-year-old Swede who was a stand-out at Oklahoma State who played 10 years on the LPGA Tour but never claimed a title. She does have seven wins on the Ladies European Tour, the most recent coming late last year at the Andalucía Costa del Sol Open de España — which was played about an hour from the 2023 Solheim Cup site.
“Having great memories from the end of last year in Andalucía, I hadn’t thought much about Solheim until I won and after that, it was a goal for the season,” Hedwall said. “I’m just really happy it became a reality and super pumped to play in Spain again.”
Her career Solheim Cup record is 8-6-1.

Gemma Dryburgh

Gemma Dryburgh. David Cannon

This is Dryburgh’s first Solheim Cup, though she has experience in team play, having competed in the 2014 Curtis Cup. The 30-year-old Scot played college golf at Tulane before turning professional in 2015. In 2022, she won the Toto Japan Classic, her first LPGA victory. She will make a good foursomes partner as she is one of the most accurate drivers of the golf ball on the LPGA Tour, hitting more than 82 pe rcent of fairways in the 2023 season.

Team Europe’s complete roster for the 2023 Solheim Cup

Celine Boutier
Maja Stark
Charley Hull
Leona Maguire
Georgia Hall
Linn Grant
Carlota Ciganda
Anna Nordqvist
Gemma Dryburgh
Caroline Hedwall
Emily Kristine Pedersen
Madelene Sagstrom

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LOOK: Strong field unveiled for Women’s Scottish Open

Golf Digest Middle East — Tue, 01 Aug 2023 11:33:47 +0000

The field is set for this week’s 2023 Women’s Scottish Open with seven of the world’s top 10, 19 major champions, including Open champ Celine Boutier, and 19 Solheim Cup stars unveiled for the Dundonald Links showdown from August 3-6.

Scottish No.1 Gemma Dryburgh enjoying her best major finish to date at the Amundi Evian Championship at the weekend (T-8), will be joined by compatriots Louise Duncan and Heather Macrae. Duncan won the 2021 Women’s Amateur Championship to qualify into the 2021 Women’s Open where she finished tied 10th to win the Smyth Salver award for low amateur. The 23 year old turned professional ahead of last year’s event and has earned three top-15 finishes this season.

“Last year’s Women’s Scottish Open was my first start as a professional and a huge life moment for me,” Duncan said. “Hopefully I can use what I’ve learnt from the first year of being professional to have a great week at my home open.”

Stirling native Macrae has made over 60 starts on the Ladies European Tour including a T-6 finish at the 2013 Women’s Scottish Open. In 2019, Macrae was diagnosed with cervical cancer and just two weeks before a major operation she won the WPGA Championship to book a place on the Women’s PGA Cup team later that year.

Invitations have been awarded to Hong Kong’s Tiffany Chan, Virginie Ding and Wei Wei Zhang who are not otherwise exempt into the field this year. Chan, a two-time Olympian and winner of the 2016 Hong Kong Ladies Open, will be making her second appearance at the Scottish Open. Ding is a junior at Vanderbilt University in Nashville who recently won the Women’s Orlando Amateur Championship. The 21-year-old earned top-10 finishes at both the 2022 and 2023 Women’s Amateur Asia-Pacific championship and will be making her debut on Scottish soil. Zhang is playing her second year on the LPGA after winning five-times on the CLPGA, including four times in 2019. Her win at the Trust Golf Thailand LPGA Masters made her the first player to win four times in one season on the CLPGA.

Women’s Scottish Open field
Weiwei Zhang
Tiffany Chan
Ginnie Ding
Heather Macrae
Louise Duncan
Chiara Noja
Celine Herbin
Laura Fuenfstueck
Alexandra Forsterling
Nanna Koerstz Madsen
Gemma Dryburgh
Mel Reid
Celine Borge
Daniela Holmqvist
Emily Kristine Pedersen
Matilda Castren
Sarah Kemp
Stephanie Kyriacou
Linn Grant
Atthaya Thitikul
Esther Henseleit
Charley Hull
Lee-Anne Pace
Carmen Alonso
Diksha Dagar
Kristyna Napoleaova
Lisa Pettersson
Patricia Isabel Schmidt
Pauline Roussin
Ashleigh Buhai
Lily May Humphreys
Maja Stark
Aditi Ashok
Johanna Gustavsson
Manon De Roey
Ana Pelaez Trivino
Magdalena Simmermacher
Meghan MacLaren
Caroline Hedwall
Liz Young
Alice Hewson
Tiia Koivisto
Morgane Metraux
Leonie Harm
Klara Davidson Spilkova
Olivia Cowan
Ursula Wikstrom
Ines Laklalech
Pia Babnik
Gabriella Cowley
Nicole Garcia
Becky Brewerton
Linnea Strom
Bronte Law
Casandra Alexander
Anne-Charlotte Mora
Laura Beveridge
Michele Thomson
Anna Nordqvist
Kim Metraux
Virginia Elena Carta
Emma Grechi
Cara Gainer
Eleanor Givens
Nicole Broch Estrup
Elin Arvidsson
Rosie Davies
Hannah Burke
Lydia Hall
Agathe Sauzon
Chloe Williams
Celine Boutier
Pamela Pretswell Asher
Sophie Witt
Felicity Johnson
Madelene Sagstrom
Kylie Henry
Sarah Schober
Christine Wolf
Pernilla Lindberg
In-Kyung Kim
Jana Melichova

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A maiden victory for Gemma Dryburgh makes her the fourth Scot to claim an LPGA Tour title

Golf Digest Middle East — Mon, 07 Nov 2022 08:58:22 +0000

Yoshimasa Nakano

By Keely Levins
After three rounds at the Toto Japan Classic, the trio of players atop the leaderboard at Seta Golf Course in Shiga had more to play for than merely a title. Momoko Ueda led by one, and as a member of the JLPGA in Japan, she would have the opportunity to accept full LPGA Tour status with a win. The same was true for Miyu Yamashita, who was two shots behind Ueda. For Gemma Dryburgh, who started the final round a shot back of Ueda, a victory would jump her far enough up the LPGA’s season-long points rankings to earn a spot in the 2022 season finale, the CME Group Tour Championship, which has one of the biggest purses in women’s golf.

As Ueda and Yamashita struggled, Dryburgh separated herself from the field. With a final-round 65, the 29-year-old Scot finished the tournament at 20-under 268, a career-best 72-hole score. She finished four shots ahead of second-place Kana Nagai.

“I was in Korea last week with friends and I said to them ‘I mention you in my speech’ as a joke. But it’s overwhelming to be honest,” Dryburgh said of claiming her first career LPGA title. “This has been a dream of mine for a long time. A lot of hard work has gone into this, so it means so much.”

With a 20-foot putt on the fourth hole, Dryburgh made her first final-round birdie, then added a second on No. 7 after her approach left her with a three-footer. When Ueda made a bogey on the ninth hole, Dryburgh had the lead, but then truly started to separate herself on the 11th hole. That’s where Ueda made a double bogey to Dryburgh’s birdie after the Scot hit a 4-hybrid to four feet.

She closed things out in style with four birdies over her final six holes to cap a bogey-free finish.

A Sunday 65 to claim her first LPGA Tour win ?

Watch @gemmadryburgh's final round highlights! ? pic.twitter.com/dkUwOa7FRY

— LPGA (@LPGA) November 6, 2022

Dryburgh joined the LPGA in 2018 after playing college golf at Tulane, where she won twice. Entering the Toto Japan Classic, she was ranked 199th in the world. More importantly, she was 78th on the CME points list with the top 60 players after next week’s Pelican Women’s Championship qualifying for the CME Group Tour Championship. After the win, and the 500 CME points that go with it (she also earned $300,000), she’s up to No. 41. The no-cut event in Naples, Fla., has the fifth-largest purse on the LPGA Tour ($7 million). This will be the first time Dryburgh has qualified for the event.

The win is also significant to Dryburgh’s home country: she’s just the fourth Scot to win on the LPGA Tour and the first to do so since 2011 when Catriona Matthew won the Lorena Ochoa Invitational.

Despite never having won on the LPGA before—and only earning $434,975 in her career previously—and this being her first time playing the Toto Japan Classic, Dryburgh was unexpectedly comfortable in the moment.

“I was surprisingly calm,” Dryburgh said after the win. “When I dreamt of this moment, I thought I’d be super, super nervous. I was nervous, I’m not going to lie. But I was incredibly calm to honest. Kind of focused on my breathing and that really got me through.”

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Scots quartet look to lead the home charge at Trust Golf Women’s Scottish Open

Matt Smith — Tue, 12 Jul 2022 07:37:55 +0000

Kelsey MacDonald. Trust Golf

By Matt Smith
With the Trust Golf Women’s Scottish Open fast approaching, the home guard has been unveiled as a quartet of players will be aiming to keep the trophy in the ‘Home of Golf’ — Scotland.

Ahead of the prestigious tournament at Dundonald Links, July 28-31, home hopes Gemma Dryburgh, Kelsey MacDonald, Michele Thomson, and Kylie Henry have confirmed their participation on one of Scotland’s leading links courses on the breezy west coast.

The Scottish quartet will join an all-star cast which consists of eight out of the world’s top 10 players as well as 19 major winners with 36 major trophies between them including the first three major champions of the year — Jennifer Kupcho, Minjee Lee and In Gee Chun.

Aberdonian Gemma Dryburgh is enjoying a fine run of form this season after finishing fifth at the LPGA Match Play and winning the US Women’s Open qualifier to make her debut in the second major of the year.

“Every year I look forward to playing in the Women’s Scottish Open, this will be my sixth appearance in the event and last year I was lucky enough to receive an invitation from tournament sponsor VisitScotland so I’m really happy to have qualified myself this year,” she said. “I am especially excited to experience all that the newly transformed Dundonald Links has to offer. It’s been a great start to the year and I’m very happy with how my game has been recently, so I just want to keep building on my last few performances and hopefully be in the running come Sunday afternoon”.

MacDonald, a perennial performer at the Women’s Scottish Open, has recorded 12 appearances since her debut in 2008 and made the cut on seven occasions. Last year she finished T-15, her best finish to date, to become the first winner of the Jock MacVicar Leading Scot award. The 2021 season saw MacDonald record two top-10 finishes and four further top-15 finishes to end the year ranked 39th in the Race to Costa Del Sol.

Thomson, who carded an opening round 64 at last year’s Scottish Open to set the course record, will make her fifth appearance at Dundonald Links this summer. With five top-20 finishes this season, Thomson is enjoying a stellar season so far and currently sits at 19th in the LET Order of Merit.

Glasgow native Kylie thought she might have to give up competitive golf last year after sustaining an elbow fracture, but after just her third start since the injury, she put in a fantastic performance at the Aramco Team Series in Bangkok to secure a third-place finish in the individual competition and sixth place in the team competition.

Tournament title sponsor, Trust Golf, has increased this year’s prize-fund by 33 per cent to $2million. The Thai based technology enterprise took over as title sponsor in 2021.

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