Since then the Swedish star has shone consistently and has occupied the top 50 of the Rolex Women’s World Golf Rankings for large portions of
her career, including several spells in the top 10.

Notching a further six LPGA wins in the meantime, it wasn’t until 2017 when Nordqvist added a second major to her tally by winning the Evian Championship.

Her impressive career includes seven Solheim Cups with a winning record that places her among Europe’s all-time elite, a position reinforced by a third major title secured at the AIG Women’s British Open just days before a fourth Solheim Cup victory was achieved with Team Europe.

The 34-year-old returns to the Middle East in November where she will be in action competing in the Aramco Saudi Ladies International (November 4-7) and Aramco Team Series – Jeddah (November 10-12) at the prestigious Royal Greens G&CC, Saudi Arabia.

We caught up with the Arizona-based Swede ahead of the Ladies European Tour double-header in King Abdullah Economic City and started by returning to her glorious week at the British Open.

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GD: Reflecting on your AIG Women’s British Open victory, what stands out from that week?
AN: It still feels unreal that I won the British Open at Carnoustie, and as a European, there’s nothing bigger to win. To do it at such a historic venue and being so close to friends and family of both my husband – who grew up 20 minutes away – and caddie, who all came to watch and support, I can’t see it getting any better.

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Where does it sit among all your professional achievements?
It’s definitely the biggest victory of my career. I’m extremely proud of the achievement and of all the hard work that I’ve put in over the last couple of years, especially when I haven’t seen that hard work pay off in my results. I’m extremely happy and I think when this season ends, I’ll have more time to process it, but I’m very proud.

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What does it mean to be part of the European Solheim Cup Team?
For me, Solheim Cups have been the biggest events I’ve played in my career. I remember going down to Barsebäck [Golf & Country Club, Sweden,] in 2003 and watching it with my family. I’d played golf for just three years at that time and could only dream of playing in an atmosphere like that.

When I think of that girl now, having played in seven… that really blows my professional goals out of the park.

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How has your role within the team changed since your first Solheim Cup?
In my first team, as a rookie in 2009, I was fortunate to compete alongside so many golfers I admired growing up. I played with Laura Davies, Suzann Pettersen, Helen Alfredsson, Sophie Gustafson, Maria Hjorth, basically all the women I grew up watching. That experience was very special but obviously now having played in quite a few myself, I’m one of the more experienced players and help look after the rookies. It’s surreal when I think about it. I’m extremely proud and honoured to have had an opportunity to represent Europe and be part of so many amazing teams, with so many other players.

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You’ve won in Europe twice and the U.S. twice. Does winning on home or away soil feel better and why?
I just love the Solheim Cup wherever it is; there’s something very special about it. The atmosphere, walking up to the first tee, hitting the first tee shot – something I was charged with at this last Solheim Cup – these are moments I live for. I just love it.

Winning is always special. It doesn’t compare with anything else. It’s perhaps a little more special to win on U.S. soil, probably because we’re underdogs and have the majority of the crowd against you. That said, in 2019 at Gleneagles, my whole family were there cheering me on, screaming, shouting and dressing up. It’s such a big week for my family and those are the few weeks in my career when they all come to watch me play and we all get such a fun week out of it, so they’re all special but 2019 was maybe the most special because of just how much I could share it with my family.

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Nordqvist finished in a share of 11th place at last year’s Aramco Saudi Ladies International

You played in the Aramco Saudi Ladies International in 2020, which, as you know was a watershed moment for Saudi Arabia as it was one of the first professional female sports events in the Kingdom. Why do you think it’s good for golf to be played at an elite level in new and emerging destinations?
To have been part of the first women’s professional golf event in Saudi Arabia last year is very cool. Meeting young girls there and women who’ve excelled in the Middle East has been awesome. It’s important to play all over the world to show this is a sport without limits, without borders and that as a professional golfer it’s great to travel the world, not only to show you can compete anywhere but also to experience different cultures.

I have always loved my time in Saudi Arabia. On my first trip, I met a lot of amazing people from all walks of life and it’s inspirational to see how other people have accomplished their dreams. I’m looking forward to coming back this year and I know there are plans in place to make the event even better this year. There was a young girl I met last year in the Pro-Am, and I’m looking forward to seeing her again and understanding how she’s been getting on in pursuing her own goals and ambitions.

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The Ladies First Club was launched at the Aramco Saudi Ladies International and welcomed 1,000 Saudi women who signed up to free access to golf. What do you think of initiatives like this?
I know not everyone is fortunate enough to have access to golf courses and equipment, but for 1,000 women to be provided with free access to the sport in a safe and comfortable environment is remarkable. I know those spots filled up very quickly, so there’s clearly an interest and I’m looking forward to seeing how it’s been going for those women in the last year.

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The Aramco Team Series will have visited London, Sotogrande, Spain and New York by the time it reaches King Abdullah Economic City for the season finale

Besides your playing experiences in the region, you now have strong ties with the Middle East through your ambassadorial roles with Golf Saudi and the Aramco Team Series. What made you want to be an ambassador for those brands?
Initiatives like the Ladies First Club and seeing how Aramco and Golf Saudi are looking to grow the women’s game was what touched me most and made me want to be an ambassador. What I’m most passionate about is creating opportunities for women, especially young girls, to be able to pick up golf.

I’m very proud to be an ambassador for Golf Saudi and the Aramco Team Series because they are trying to grow the game in places where we can’t really take women’s golf, or even women’s sports, for granted.

Aramco and Golf Saudi’s initiative to sponsor five tournaments has made a massive difference to the [Ladies] European Tour and women’s golf in general. By coming up with new, fun ways of including women and amateur golfers like they do in the Aramco Team Series, and broadcasting around the world really helps demonstrate how many great personalities there are on the LET.

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Is being a role model or ambassador important to you?
I think it’s very important to be an ambassador for the game of golf and especially for young girls all over the world. I always said to, ‘be the change you wish to see’ and I think if I didn’t have amazing role models growing up like Annika [Sörenstam] and other players from Sweden playing at the highest level, it would have been hard for me to make the same dreams. Sharing experiences and seeing first-hand what it’s like you can see the potential, and I feel that by being an ambassador, if I help someone take up the game, or believe in themselves, or be proud of being a young girl with big dreams, I think we’re on a good track. I think it’s very important to use your voice as a professional golfer and be an ambassador and role model for young girls to pursue their dreams. It doesn’t necessarily have to be golf. Travelling around the world and playing in lots of different countries enables us to be role models to young people and help them dream maybe a little bigger.

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The innovative format for 2020’s Aramco Saudi Ladies Team International has been adopted and re-energised as the Aramco Team Series, which is played four times per year in four global cities. What do you like about the Aramco Team Series?
I can honestly say it’s a fun tournament I really look forward to. It’s something different from what we normally do every week. Getting to pick a teammate is nice, but then having another pro randomly paired with you also gives you the opportunity to meet other girls on tour you might not meet otherwise. It’s really great to have the amateurs playing too, and it’s so much fun when they contribute to the team, or just make a good shot, but we also give them advice through the tournament and when they have success following giving them advice – that’s really rewarding. It’s also just lovely to get to know other people from around the world that I might not otherwise spend time with. It’s a great week where you can enjoy the team atmosphere and probably relax a little more than usual weeks. It’s fun to see how well-received it’s been from both amateurs and pros.

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Global Game Changer

The inaugural Aramco Saudi Ladies International marked a new dawn for women’s golf in the kingdom last year. That success has led to ‘Get Into Golf’ initiatives being replicated globally.

Following its successful inauguration in 2020, the Aramco Saudi Ladies International (ASLI) returns to Royal Greens G&CC in King Abdullah Economic City from November 4-7.

Won last year by Dane Emily Kristine Pedersen (pictured above), the European Solheim Cup star’s victory helped her claim the 2020 Race to Costa del Sol, the Ladies European Tour’s season-long competition to crown Europe’s No.1 player.

Sanctioned by the Ladies European Tour (LET), the event offers a prize fund of $1M, which – now alongside the new Aramco Team Series – makes Aramco the single most significant supporter of the LET.

As part of ‘Vision 2030’ – Saudi Arabia’s transformative economic and social reform blueprint opening up the Kingdom to the world – the Quality of Life Program endeavours to expand the horizons of many sectors that directly impact citizens, including sports, culture and entertainment.

High profile golf events are a feature for Saudi Arabia’s golf strategy; designed to inspire next generations and showcase the natural beauty of the nation.

Ladies First Club
Within just four days of its launch by Golf Saudi in 2020, a phenomenal 1000 women and girls signed-up to play and receive regular lessons via the Ladies First Club. With the goal of getting more females playing golf, the Ladies First Club is a hands-on, experience-led initiative that helps get women and girls with club in hand and learning more about golf and getting a better taste of the game. Thanks to its success in Saudi Arabia, the Ladies First Club initiative has gone international with help from the Aramco Team Series, which has sought to replicate its impact at every venue the innovative tournament series is played.

The post Anna Nordqvist  is determined to make her ambassadorial role for Golf Saudi count, in the kingdom and beyond appeared first on Golf Digest Middle East.

By Joel Beall
The Rolex Women’s World Golf Rankings has announced it is resuming its standings immediately, with a major—albeit temporary—switch.

The rankings were paused in March due to golf’s suspension in wake of the coronavirus pandemic. However, while the LPGA remains on sabbatical (with an aim to restart next week), the Korea Ladies Professional Golf Association returned in early May and has already logged seven tournaments, with the Ladies Professional Golf Association of Japan holding an event as well.

To reflect these different cadences, along with the fact the pandemic will continue to disrupt individuals’ playing schedules, the Rolex rankings’ board of directors has switched its algorithm. Rankings for a golfer will continue to be computed on a 104-week rolling period, but that 104-week rolling period will differ based on how much a player competes while the modification is in place.

“The WWGR Board was keen to find a solution that was as fair as possible for the majority of athletes whether competing or not during this unprecedented time. As a level of uncertainty around member tours’ tournament schedules continues, focusing on the individual athlete and the weeks she competes made the most sense.” said Heather Daly-Donofrio, executive director of the WWGR. “While the board understands there is no perfect solution in these challenging times, we believe we landed on an approach that is reasonable for athletes and also protects the integrity of the ranking system.”

Unlike the men’s world rankings, the switch is hoping not to hurt a player’s standing who is unable to compete. The board said this move will be transitory.

“The rankings will revert to its historical approach of running rankings each week regardless of tournament or athlete play in due time,” the board said in a statement.

The move is retroactive. With the new standing, Hyo Joo Kim was able to crack the world top 10 thanks to a victory in June’s KLPGA’s Lotte Cantata Ladies Open, with Hyun Kyung Park—who has won twice since the restart—jumping up over 60 spots. Jin Young Ko remains No. 1 in the rankings.

The post Women’s world rankings altered to account for pandemic’s effect on schedule appeared first on Golf Digest Middle East.

By Keely Levins
LPGA Q-School’s makeover is now official. Stages 1 and 2 of Q-School will still be played as separate, four-round tournaments, but the final stage as you know it is gone. The 90-hole final stage of Q-School has been replaced by Q-Series. Q-Series is two 72-hole events, and they’ll be played back-to-back at Pinehurst Resort in North Carolina. The first event will be played at the No. 6 course from October 24 to 27, with the final four rounds played at No. 7 from October 31 to November 3.

The field will consist of players who finished the LPGA season ranked 101 to 150 and ties on the money list. Players who finished 11 to 30 on the Symetra Tour money list will also be invited to Q-Series. The top five collegiate players in the country are exempt, as are up to 10 players ranked in the top 75 in the Rolex Women’s World Golf Rankings. The rest of the field will be made up of players who qualify for stage 2 of Q-School.

Let’s focus in on those top five collegiate players in the country, and the other college players that make it through Stage 2. In the past, if you were a college golfer and made it to through the final stage of Q-School, you were in a tough spot. You’d either have to turn professional immediately or forfeit your spot on tour and finish your college season. If you turned professional immediately, you’d be leaving your team before the spring season began, and as such, would miss the opportunity to play in the NCAA tournament. If you left Q-School to maintain your amateur status, you’d be left playing Symetra Tour events during the summer—amateur golfers who made it through Stage 2 are able to keep their amateur status and play on the Symetra Tour. After a summer on the Symetra Tour, the player would have to try to play LPGA Q-School again in the fall, in hopes of making it to the big tour.

It’s a dilemma that was most recently brought to light at the 2017 Q-School when the then-No. 1 amateur in the world, Leona Maguire, left after two stages of Q-School to go and finish her career at Duke. At the time, Maguire said her team came first. Now with the deferral, other collegiate athletes won’t be faced with the difficult decision Maguire dealt with.

By adding the opportunity to defer, the LPGA is allowing these college players to try to qualify for the tour without the tough decision of leaving their college teams or not. Athletes who want to transition out of amateur golf and into professional golf can now do so without missing out on the NCAA tournament or the Solheim Cup. They can play out their spring seasons and then join the LPGA on July 1st.

“I would’ve loved to have been able to have an LPGA card right now instead of a Symetra card,” Maguire told Golf World. “It’s a good option to have for seniors so they can finish their degree. It was important to me to get my degree and honour the commitment to my team and to have another chance. It’s a good thing that seniors are going to have the opportunity to do that.”

Her coach at Duke, Dan Brooks, thinks the deferral is something that is a good thing depending on the age of the player. For seniors, it saves them from having to choose between their individual golf career and their team and education, as Maguire did. But with the change, Q School just got a bit more tempting, especially for those top five collegiate players who have an exemption into Q-Series.

“Encouraging sophomores and juniors to go and try to get their card — that’s unfortunate,” Brooks told Golf World. “I’m not in favour of anything that doesn’t encourage people to finish their degrees.”

While the deferral solves the problem Maguire faced, Brooks points out that the dates of Q-Series present a new problem for collegiate golfers.

“Considering the dates of Stage 2 and Q-Series, much of the college fall season is taken up,” said Brooks. “Fall and spring could consist of a different array of players, in the top events especially.”

With those five collegiate players getting an invitation to Q-Series, those athletes will be faced with the decision of skipping collegiate events to try and get their cards. This could end up affecting team rankings, Brooks pointed out. There could be a team with more than one player in the top five, or there could be a team that relies heavily on their top player — were all five of the top five to choose to play Q-Series, their teams’ results and thus their ranking would change. In the spring, these teams would be playing catch up. Again, players are put in the position of choosing between their team and their own individual career.

At the completion of Q-Series, a minimum of 45 players and ties will receive LPGA membership, a change that will get more players better status on tour. Specifically, the change moves the players who finish 21-45 up 25 spots on the priority list. The remaining players from Q-Series will get membership on the Symetra Tour.

“What I like most about the Q-Series is that it will be a true test for how players will qualify for the LPGA Tour,” commissioner of the LPGA, Mike Whan, said. “The playing status earned by competitors at Q-Series will be a direct reflection of eight rounds of head-to-head competition on a demanding test of golf at Pinehurst Resort.”

The post New LPGA Q-School format allows collegiate players to defer LPGA status appeared first on Golf Digest Middle East.