By Matt Smith
The Ladies European Tour heads to Beroun in the Czech Republic, with Dubai-based Kristyna Napoleaova flying the flag for the host nation in a 130-strong field at the Czech Ladies Open.

The 54-hole event begins on Friday, with prize money of €200,000 on offer at Royal Beroun Golf Club.

Napoleaova is one of 16 Czech players in the field, and the 26-year-old has had a great start to life on the LET, sitting fourth in the Rookie of the Year standings, a T2 finish at the Aramco Saudi Ladies International and T9 at the Joburg Ladies Open.

Another home favourite is Sara Kouskova, who won the 2021 Amundi Czech Ladies Challenge on the LET Access Series, and she turned professional a few weeks ago.

Among the big guns are three-time LET winner Meghan MacLaren from England, Sweden’s Johanna Gustavsson, who is third in the 2022 Race to Costa del Sol, and Argentina’s Magdalena Simmermacher, who sits fifth in the rankings.

Germany’s Leonie Harm finished third at the 2021 edition of the tournament, just two strokes behind winner Atthaya Thitikul. And the 24-year-old will be hoping to find that form once again and add to her one top-10 finish so far this season.

Wales’ Becky Brewerton is also competing after her T6 at the Aramco Team Series – London.

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The post Ladies European Tour: Dubai-based Kristyna Napoleaova flies home flag in strong field at Czech Ladies Open appeared first on Golf Digest Middle East.

Morgane, who is two years younger than Kim, closed with four birdies in a row to set the early target at Golf Club Margara in Fubine Monferrato, before she was tied by her sister two groups later.

Bringner joined them late in the afternoon after a career-low round of on the LET, which included an eagle on the par-5 fifth.

The 24-year-old from Gothenburg said: “I hit a good drive to the middle of the fairway and then a 6-iron to the green, three metres from the pin and made the putt. It’s my first Italian Open so I’m enjoying it.”

Bringner won the Swedish Matchplay Championship on the LET Access Series last July and finished fifth on the Order of Merit to earn her LET card for 2022. She added: “It was a very solid round. I have been waiting for some good scores for a long time now so it feels good to have made some putts and hit some good shots. It’s a very nice golf course with good views, so I’m enjoying being here.”

Morgane added: “We’ve played together in the same group three times as amateurs, but not as professionals, because they never pair us together,” said Morgane, who graduated from the Epson Tour to become a rookie on the LPGA Tour this season.

“In college and in amateur tournaments, we always played together. Since graduating and turning pro, we haven’t played on the same tour, so it’s fun to have a few times where you can be together and share dinners and so on.

“We push each other to do better and at the same time we don’t want to be beaten by the other. It’s good, healthy competition.

“It’s fun. We always have that kind of inside competition. When I saw that she was one shot ahead on the last, I thought, I’ve got to tie it, so it was a bit of extra motivation to make that on the last.”

It's a three-way tie at the top in Italy, with Kim Metraux, Morgane Metraux and Sofie Bringner all shooting 67 (-5) to lead the way after the first 18 holes ??#RaiseOurGame | #LadiesItalianOpen

— Ladies European Tour (@LETgolf) June 2, 2022

When Morgane chose to forego last year’s Olympic Games in order to earn her LPGA card via the Epson Tour, Kim went to represent Switzerland in Tokyo.

“I was playing in America on the Epson Tour and I won the qualifying event for Evian (the 2021 Island Resort Championship),” Morgane explained. “Evian and the Olympics were back-to-back and if I had played in both I would have missed four tournaments in a row in America and I may not have finished in the top 10 and lost the opportunity to get my LPGA card. Evian was my dream growing up, but it was a hard decision. I definitely do not want to miss the next Olympic Games in 2024.”

The sisters are in a rich vein of form. Morgane tied for third place in the Mithra Belgian Ladies Open on Sunday, while Kim finished second in the recent Joburg Ladies Open and feels that her game is trending in the right direction, so there is a real possibility of them featuring in a play-off together in the final round on Saturday.

However, there are three multiple LET champions lurking just two strokes behind with two rounds to play: this year’s Investec SA Women’s Open champion Lee-Anne Pace from South Africa, the recent Australian Women’s Classic – Bonville winner Meghan MacLaren from England and Nuria Iturrioz of Spain. Alongside them are Italian amateur Carolina Melgrati, 19, from Monza, Lombardia and Tereza Melecka from the Czech Republic.

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Leader Caroline Hedwall has a criminology essay to submit before she joins the gaggle of big names eyeing the heist of the OMEGA Dubai Moonlight Classic’s coveted Dallah Trophy.

By Kent Gray
It would be fitting if evidence for the paper Caroline Hedwall had to submit overnight as part of her criminology degree was sourced from a suspenseful, real-life thriller. That certainly shapes as the genre of Friday when the Swede gets back to her day job, albeit after hours, at the OMEGA Dubai Moonlight Classic.

The 31-year-old, suddenly playing well after the mystery of eight missed cuts in her last nine starts, will take a one-stroke buffer over England’s Meghan MacLaren into the final round of the $285,000 LET Pro-Am at Emirates Golf Club.

With six LET titles on a résumé boasting 15 wins worldwide, and a 8 win-6 loss-1 half record in four Solheim Cup appearances, Hedwall is no stranger to winning, nor pressure. But the final round of the Moonlight, under The Faldo’s floodlights, is set up for a spine-tingling finish courtesy of a classy and tightly-packed leaderboard.

After a bogey-free second round 70 to move to -9, Hedwall will be out in the final three-ball alongside -8 MacLaren and -7 Minjee Lee. Lee’s presence, in particular, will likely give Hedwall the chills after the Aussie made Thursday’s biggest move with a 65. At No.9 in the world ranking, Lee owns the tag as the Moonlight’s highest-rated player and also has the experience of five LPGA Tour wins to bring to the 1st tee Friday.

The threesome immediately behind Hedwall and co., who will tee off five minutes ahead in group 1A in a quirk of the 5pm shotgun draw, won’t provide the 36-hole leader with much comfort either.

Also at -7 and just two strokes back is Laura Fuenfstueck (70). The German will be joined by former world No.1 Lydia Ko (70) and French Solheim Cupper Celine Boutier (71) who shared fifth place with the Kiwi star on -6. Ominously, the trio of Lee, Ko and Bouiter bring a total of 21 LPGA Tour and eight LET wins to Friday’s title fight.

Laura Fuenfstueck. Photo by Tristan Jones/LET

After a quick turnaround from her opening night 65 which included a slam dunk hole-in-one, Hedwall had to rise early for her ultimately flawless but slightly frustrating second round.

“I have been playing very steady, hitting a lot of greens and I’ve been good within two metres of the hole. Today I had a lot of putts that didn’t drop so maybe five-under would have been a fair score. But I’m in a good position for tomorrow and I am happy with my game,” said Hedwall who finished T-5 in Dubai last year.

“Today was so different. It was quite hot but … the turnaround was probably the hardest part, falling asleep yesterday and then having to be back up, I only had 6½ hours sleep. I have plenty of time to rest for tomorrow. I am going to try and get my energy up, relax and chill.”

That was until Hedwall remembered her homework assignment waiting back in the players’ hotel.

“I am actually studying criminology at the moment to try and get a degree. It is nice to have something to focus on when you are back in the room. It is stressful at times with 100 percent of the course completed remotely. I’ve been doing lots of essays and I have one to do tonight as the deadline is tomorrow.”

The only crime on Friday then? Perhaps that you forget to tune in on TV – Dubai Sports Channel in the UAE – to find out if Hedwall was the one, ahem, whodunit.

It won’t be a surprise if MacLaren, Lee or Ko spoil Hedwall’s wire-to-wire attempt mind you.

Ko finished with two birdies, including a chip-in from a hanging lie on the 16th, in her final three holes to keep herself in the tournament. But the Kiwi, who owns five LET titles to go with her 15 LPGA Tour wins, is having to learn how to putt the grainy Faldo greens at night on the job.

“Ah, yes, my putting stats definitely agreed to that,” said Ko when asked if she was struggling on the greens.

“I really had trouble with my distance control. It’s difficult because you see the dark and the light and I think your depth perception is a little off, even just with the length of the holes. I had one hole yesterday where I felt like I could get close to the green [off the tee] on the par-4 and today it felt like a par-5, it just shows you how different it is.

“But it’s fun, it’s a unique format and definitely an interesting factor about this tournament.

“Hopefully I’ll be able to learn a few things from today but in some ways, because it is dark, I think it eliminates some of the things you see and it makes you focus on the shot you want to hit. In some ways it really dials in your targets which is nice, especially on tricky driving holes.”

Switzerland’s Kim Metraux is solo 7th on -5 while defending champion Nuria Iturrioz isn’t out of it in a quartet a shot further back. But Friday shapes as a battle between the final two three-balls. The scene of the great Dallah Trophy heist has been set.

The post Caroline Hedwall, pro golfer by day, amateur crime sleuth by night, scripts Moonlight thriller appeared first on Golf Digest Middle East.

By Kent Gray
Meghan MacLaren isn’t sure she’s figured out all of The Faldo’s night-time nuances but has her putter cooperating sufficiently to believe Emirates Golf Club could be the scene of a third LET win.

A second-round 67 to go with an opening 69 propelled the 26-year-old Englishwoman into contention at the $285,000 OMEGA Dubai Moonlight Classic. At -8, MacLaren will start Friday’s final round in the company of world No.9 Minjee Lee (-7) and just a stroke adrift of Caroline Hedwall, the Swedish pole-sitter who rounds out the event’s final three-ball.

With Kiwi Lydia Ko also among those in hot pursuit, Friday won’t be easy. But Sir Nick Faldo’s desert re-design shapes as MacLaren’s toughest foe as she sets out in pursuit of the Dallah Trophy to go with her back-to-back Women’s NSW Open wins in 2018 and 2019.

“It’s a strange course because it doesn’t look like a course you can score on,” MacLaren said. “Level par is a good place to be but once you get your rhythm you can get going.”

MacLaren had just one bogey in her morning circuit on Wednesday.

“I thought I’d find the greens easier today but to be honest I didn’t. I don’t know if I am overthinking it now but on the whole, I’ve been rolling it well all week. It’s the biggest improvement of my game and I feel that I can take advantage of my good play and make more out of my rounds.“

MacLaren has enjoyed just one LET top-10 in 2020 at the SA Women’s Open in March but has been trending with a pair of top-20s at the Swiss Ladies and Open de France en-route to Dubai. She also captured a Rose Ladies Series title at Moor Park in Hertfordshire after lockdown and will take the experience of last year in Dubai, where she finished a lowly T-38 after rounds of 71-73-77, into Friday.

“I enjoy the conditions here, the good weather is a plus and it’s nice to come back somewhere you’ve been before. I’ve learnt from last year, it’s in great condition and you just have a look around, it’s a great place to be.”

It could be an even better place late on Friday if her game, and The Faldo, continue to play ball.

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A star-studded cast are aiming for the new Omega Dubai Moonlight Classic title. Welcome to a new floodlit dawn for the LET event.

By Kent Gray
Bright new lights. Refocused cameras. Unbeatable, fan-friendly action.

Welcome to a new dawn for Dubai’s celebrated Ladies European Tour (LET) stop, a ground-breaking pathway to the future of women’s professional golf in the emirate which will be illuminated, partially at least, by the snazzy new LED floodlights on the Faldo layout at Emirates Golf Club.

The $285,000 Omega Dubai Moonlight Classic is the 13th edition of Dubai’s revered LET stop but nothing like the 72-hole strokeplay championships that have preceded it. A new 54-hole, Pro-Am format, a new course and the chance to showcase Dubai’s extended golf season to the world courtesy of Emirates G.C.’s night golf offering, complete with that glittering Dubai Marina backdrop.

Meghan MacLaren, third in the LET Order of Merit standings after last week’s €450,000 Lalla Meryem Cup in the Moroccan capital of Rabat, has welcomed the change of tack.

“Anytime that golf tries to innovate it creates a bit of a buzz which I think is exactly what the game needs,” MacLaren said. “Hopefully the Omega Dubai Moonlight Classic means a few more people will be paying attention just to see something different happening. The playing level is and always will be there, so it’s about forcing people to sit up and take notice.”

Tristan Jones/LET

MacLaren has her heart set on winning this season’s OOM title and has made a fine start with four top-10s in seven starts highlighted by the successful defence of her NSW Open title and runner-up finish in the pioneering Jordan Mixed Open.

The 23-year-old Englishwoman won’t be satisfied with her T-28 placing in Rabat, however, and will be confronted by another quality field this week including new Lalla Meryem Cup champion Nuria Iturrios.

Cheyenne Woods, the niece of you-know who, is the headline invitee and will be hoping to better her share of 20th and 10th places when she played the then Omega Dubai Ladies Masters in 2014 and 2016 respectively.

Marianne Skarpnord (Norway) finished tied 4th in Rabat while 2017 Solheim Cuppers Emily Kristine Pedersen (Denmark) and Florentyna Parker (England), former money list winners Beth Allen (USA) and Becky Brewerton (Wales) and LET life-member Trish Johnson, the 53-year-old, 18-time LET winner from Bristol, will also be watched closely.

Throw into the mix 24-year-old former world amateur No.1 Leona Maguire and the Irishwoman’s twin Lisa, Caroline Hedwall – the highest ranked player in the field at No.128 – and the likes of Sophie Lamb, Scot Carly Booth and Spaniard Emma Cabrera Bello, and the winner of the inaugural Moonlight Classic is a tough pick.

There’s the also not inconsiderable night-time factor to, well, factor in. Each of the professionals will play at least nine holes of one of their opening two rounds under the Faldo’s powerful new floodlights.

“The idea of playing under floodlights is pretty cool. I’ve always enjoyed going to watch evening football matches more than ones in the day so hopefully golf will be the same,” MacLaren said. “Even though the golf will be the same, I imagine it might affect our perception of distance and also green reading a little bit. Trusting yourself will probably be the most important thing. It’ll be a different experience for all of us but one that I think will create even more engagement which, for women’s golf in particular, is a great thing.”

Fan engagement is exactly what the Omega Dubai Moonlight Classic is all about. With no live television cover (there will be a highlights package beamed worldwide post event), the only way to watch the action is to wander the Faldo’s pristine fairways. And the only thing better than being outside the ropes is to be one of the lucky 168 amateurs involved in the Pro-Am portion of the new event tomorrow and Thursday. It will be a fascinating battle within the battle at Emirates G.C. in what is an exciting new chapter for Dubai Golf and the LET. Lights, cameras…action!

The post #ODMC2019: Dubai’s bright new night vision for women’s golf appeared first on Golf Digest Middle East.

By Kent Gray
Cheyenne Woods will chase her second Ladies European Tour (LET) title at the new-look Omega Dubai Moonlight Classic early next month.

The 28-year-old niece of new Masters champion Tiger Woods has been confirmed for the 54-hole, Pro-Am event which will be played, partially at least, under the new LED floodlights on the Faldo course at Emirates Golf Club from May 1-3.

It will be Woods’ third tilt at the Dallah trophy after she finished tied 20th at the then Omega Dubai Ladies Masters in 2014 and shared 10th place in 2016 with rounds of 68-73-72.

The world No. 285, who placed 15th at the Fatima Bint Mubarak Ladies Open at Saadiyat Beach in January, is one of the Moonlight Classic’s highest-profile signings. She joins current LET money leader Marianne Skarpnord (Norway), 2017 Solheim Cuppers Emily Kristine Pedersen (Denmark) and Florentyna Parker (England), former money list winners Beth Allen (USA) and Becky Brewerton (Wales) and LET life-member Trish Johnson. The 53-year-old from Bristol is an 18-time winner on tour.

World No. 133 Caroline Hedwall, who has won eight LET titles heading into this week’s €450,000 Lalla Meryem Cup in Rabat, Morocco, is the highest rated player in the official Rolex Women’s Golf Rankings headed for the $285,000 Moonlight Classic in Dubai.

We’ve got a star studded line up for the Moonlight Classic ??

Join us for FREE from 1-3 May to see some of the finest @letgolf players take part in the world’s FIRST day-night tournament!!

You do not want to miss this ?‍#ODMC pic.twitter.com/dhFyb2YBLL

— OMEGA Golf Dubai (@OMEGAGolfDubai) April 16, 2019

Woods has won two professionals titles, the most notable coming at the 2014 Australian Ladies Masters on Queensland’s Golf Coast. She played four LET events last season with her 8th placing at the Vic Open one of her four top 10s from 38 starts on the world’s second largest ladies circuit. She has recorded two top 10s on the LPGA Tour.

“We are delighted to welcome Cheyenne back to Dubai for the new Omega Dubai Moonlight Classic,” said out-going Tournament Director David Spencer. “She is an extremely talented golfer and is always a crowd favourite. To have Cheyenne playing alongside the strong field of confirmed amateurs and professionals will make this year’s tournament extra special and we wish her the best of luck.”

There will also be much interest in the performance of 24-year-old former world amateur No.1 Leona Maguire and the Irishwoman’s twin Lisa who was born 15 minutes earlier than Leona. Other names include Englishwoman Meghan MacLaren and Sophie Lamb, Scot Carly Booth and Spaniard Emma Cabrera Bello, the sister of Dubai-domiciled European Ryder Cupper Rafa Cabrera Bello.

Carly will be with us on the 1st May … will you? ?@CarlyBooth92 #ODMC pic.twitter.com/8edo5zkCl7

— OMEGA Golf Dubai (@OMEGAGolfDubai) April 17, 2019

American Angel Yin, who won the last Omega Dubai Ladies Classic on the Majlis course at Emirates G.C. in December 2017, will not return to defend her title.

The post Woods Dubai-bound as Moonlight Classic field finalised appeared first on Golf Digest Middle East.

By John Huggan
GEELONG, Australia — This is an event for real golf fans. Or fans of real golf. Both really.

This week’s Vic Open in Australia—a ground-breaking collaboration of the European Tour, the LPGA Tour, the PGA of Australia and Australian Ladies Professional Golf—has men and women playing alongside each other on two golf courses at 13th Beach Golf Club on the picturesque Bellarine Peninsula and, here’s the big news, for equal prize money. No, not huge money by today’s standards—a $1.5 million total purse for each—a factor that has surely led to the absence of many star names across the gender divide. But the Vic Open remains a fascinating hint of a more enlightened future for professional golf.

“The guys and girls thing just makes sense. Two real tournaments played at the same time on the same courses makes sense,” argues former U.S. Open champion Geoff Ogilvy, a native Victorian who will be playing in his home state Open for the first time in 21 years. “I wanted to be part of that. Everybody has been praising this event for the last four or five years. That’s all I’ve been hearing in the locker room.

“The people walking on the fairways, guys and girls at the same tournament, alternating groups, a cool venue, two different courses. It’s all great. They are ticking every box. And the field is getting better every year because of that.”

Indeed, backed by the state government, this latest version of the Vic Open—it has been around in various forms since 1957 and has been won by the likes of Peter Thomson, Kel Nagle, Bruce Devlin, Greg Norman, David Graham and Ian Baker-Finch—is in many ways a step back in time. To a better time.

As Ogilvy points out, in recognition of the fact that golf is best viewed from “down the line” rather than “face on,” spectators will walk behind the players rather than alongside them. And the fields contains much of interest to the true golf aficionado. The likes of Laura Davies, Karrie Webb, Minjee Lee, Paula Creamer, Georgia Hall and Catriona Matthew on the women’s side, and Ogilvy, Victor Dubuisson, Ryo Ishikawa, Matteo Manassero, Nicolas Colsaerts, Lucas Herbert and Bob Macintyre are all in attendance. It’s an eclectic mix of young and not-so young.

Indeed, the Vic Open has been so successful, Golf Australia—who run the men’s and women’s Opens Down Under—have taken note. While immediate contractual obligations make an imminent move unlikely, seeing the two championships together is a definite long-term possibility.

“There is no downside to this event,” confirms Matthew, who is making her Vic Open debut. “It really is an inventive initiative and a fun format. I’m enjoying the different vibe that comes with having the men alongside. The only depressing aspect is how far they all hit the ball [laughs]. But I’m all for anything that gets away from the normal 72-hole stroke play we see almost every week.”

Michael Dodge/Getty Images
Signage around 13th Beach Golf Club highlights the fact both the LPGA and European Tour are running concurrent events on the same course.

Amid all of this giddiness, there have been one or two murmurings of discontent. Many of the women have noted the sight of several of their tees sitting either directly alongside or marginally ahead of those of the men. This, many argue, will lead to a wide disparity in the winning scores that will only support the chauvinistic notion that the men can play and the women can’t.

“It’s not that hard,” says one woman who asked not to be identified. “All they have to do is set the test up so that we are all hitting the same clubs into the greens. There are some holes out there where I’ll be going in with a hybrid and many of the men will be hitting short irons. To a tight pin, that’s just not fair.”

Still, perhaps the only real downside is the list of absentees. Symbolically at least, it is disappointing that only four of the world’s top 50 women have made the trip, especially when the Australian Women’s Open, also an LPGA event, will be played in Adelaide next week. (Which is not to say that the leading men have made any more of an effort to acknowledge this historic event).

“I haven’t explicitly said we should get the same money as the men,” says Englishwoman Meghan Maclaren, one of the more interesting voices in the women’s game (go to megmaclaren.com to read one of the most thought-provoking blogs out there). “I’m not sure we will ever get to the stage where that can happen. Because of the way the business and golf worlds have operated for so long. If you are bringing in more money for sponsors, it makes sense that you should be paid more. But if you bring it all back to its most basic level, we are doing the same things as the men.

“We are playing the game to the best of our ability. Which makes me think there is no reason why we shouldn’t start with equal pay. But it has never happened. And the gap is so vast, which is what should be getting more attention. It shouldn’t be as wide as it is. And it doesn’t need to be.

To that end, says Maclaren, the Vic Open is a big deal. “We are getting the chance to play for the same prize-money as the men, which is great,” she says. “Nowhere else in the world is doing this. This week we will end up with two different winners—and they will have played the courses completed differently.”

Exactly. Golf geeks of the world unite. This is a tournament(s) worth watching. And watching closely.

The post The Vic Open is more than a novel event. It’s a model for the future appeared first on Golf Digest Middle East.

Last week the Staysure Tour chief executive officer traded in his suit and tie for a caddy bib and shorts at steamy Coffs Harbour Golf Club as his 23-year-old daughter Meghan captured the Women’s New South Wales Open for her maiden Ladies European Tour title.

sometimes I know how to use words… but not right now ?? pic.twitter.com/6vALAU1dWQ

— Meghan MacLaren (@meg_maclaren) March 4, 2018

This week the proudest Dad in golf is back in business mode at the 2nd Sharjah Senior Golf Masters and just as (and justifiably so) chuffed with the progress of the Staysure Tour as the circuit formerly known as the European Senior Tour prepares for it’s 2018 season bow.

A year ago the Englishman turned up to Sharjah Golf & Shooting Club having inherited one of the toughest sales jobs in golf as the new boss of the embattled over 50s circuit, replacing Andy Stubbs. Leading players, Italian Ryder Cup star Costantino Rocca the most vocal among them, were openly critical of the lack of (particularly early season) playing opportunities but MacLaren soothed fears by calmly seeking time to ease into the role and get his new house in order.

He’s over delivered on his early promises too – securing a first ever title sponsor for the European seniors in UK-based over 50s travel insurance provider Staysure as well as tagging no fewer than five new events onto last year’s schedule to bring it up to a tentative 20 events.

Tristan Jones / LET

While MacLaren was happy to loop away in the background in Australia last week, he’s the focus of all the early plaudits in Sharjah.

Said Ryder Cupper Barry Lane, a five-time European Tour winner and winner of six Staysure Tour titles: “David MacLaren has the Tour moving in the right direction and I think he’s doing a fantastic job.

“It was a great move by [European Tour supremo] Keith Pelley to put him in charge. David has fresh eyes and a fresh mind. He’s put his life and soul into the Staysure Tour and it’s been an amazing success.”

South African Chris Williams, the defending champion this week, was just as effusive. “David MacLaren is doing an excellent job as head of the newly named Staysure Tour. He’s a good communicator and he seems to have created an ideal relationship with the players, sponsors and spectators. He appreciates that there is a need to give something back to the sponsors who support the tournaments, particularly in regard to the Pro-Ams.

Related: Williams ready for Sharjah encore

“Having Staysure as the sponsor of the Senior Tour has certainly elevated things. It’s the first time the Senior Tour has had a sponsor and it has certainly given the Tour more credibility and a more solid financial standing.”

For his part, MacLaren insists the Staysure Tour is still very much a work in progress. But he’s pleased to have secured Staysure and delighted they will also be naming sponsors of one of the five new events – the revival of the flagship PGA Seniors Championship scheduled for Aug. 2-5 at The London G.C. in Kent. As well as the other new tournaments earmarked for Denmark, South Africa, Moscow and Spain, he’s also keenly anticipating the Senior Open’s return to the Old Course at St. Andrews in late July as a profile booster.

“While it is very easy to paint this as a huge rosy and encouraging picture and I think it is, I wouldn’t ever want to minimise the work that is required to make sure we maintain that momentum,” said MacLaren.

“Everyday brings a new challenge and you realise in this type of role that every single tournament, both new and existing, requires a lot of attention and a lot of respect and a lot of hard work. Just because we are able to create new events doesn’t mean we can’t spend just as much time making sure that our current events are happy events with happy sponsors.

“At the same time, the great thing for our current events is that they have seen growth and also obviously seen we’ve been able to bring in a title sponsor for the tour and that just gives everybody confidence. That confidence permeates through from sponsors to promoters, to staff, to players to spectators.

“But yes the progress, I guess, has been even more rapid than I could have hoped for and I think that is a testimony that everybody has brought into the strategy.”

But lets forget business for a moment and reflect on Meghan’s glory as she outlasted rookies Casey Danielson (USA) and Marita Engzelius (Norway) and Spaniard Silvia Bañon for her first victory in just her 11th LET start. It was no fluke of course – she won two titles on the LET Access Series as well as the developmental tour’s order of merit in 2017 and previously secured the winning Curtis Cup points as one of her final amateur acts in 2015. Still, it was clearly a very sweet moment for proud parents David and Mary, the latter a former Irish international who is currently playing the Spanish Senior Amateur.

“You just never know with golf and whether it is your daughter or it is somebody on the Staysure Tour, golf I think is the most incredibly unpredictable sport,” said MacLaren.

“If you take Meghan, she had gone out to Australia on the back of a very good first year as a professional, so she was looking forward to year two, goes out to Australia with a lot of confidence and promptly misses the first two cuts in the first two events. In the third event she’s 99 percent certain to miss again by a shot as well and things change and she ends up making the cut by a couple of shots, finishes 50th or something and it just seems like it is momentum, but very gentle momentum.

“She said, if only she’d known two or three weeks previous what was about to happen, then it would have been easier to deal with the time when it wasn’t quite going as well as she expected, but that’s golf.”

The final round, when Meghan lead by as many as four, was a rollercoaster for daughter and dad.

“The other thing that interested me about last week is I’ve never seen her play golf like that before, and as an un-objective father I can’t remember seeing anybody playing golf like that before and therefore you got into this mindset where it just looked like she was going to win by six, seven, eight shots. And then, what always happens in golf, just something, sometimes it’s dramatic but sometimes its imperceptible, and the whole thing tightens up.

“She was never six or seven shots ahead but that was what it looked like she was going to be and then all of the sudden that became three or four, and then all of the sudden it’s only two shots. And then of course, I dunno what her mindset was, I can only talk about mine, but you’re thinking about all sorts of things. So for her to then get over the line, the immediate emotion is not elation at all, it’s just relief [laughs] and then eventually it becomes huge pride in what she did. So yeah, it’s been quite a rollercoaster.”

It is, indeed, great to be riding the MacLaren train right now.

This is cool @DavidMGolf!

Some inspiring words for the #WomensNSWOpen champion ?@meg_maclaren from @garyplayer back in 2015 https://t.co/P07aVKzLFj

— Ladies European Tour (@LETgolf) March 6, 2018

The post David MacLaren is the father and facilitator of good golfing things appeared first on Golf Digest Middle East.