AN EXCITING YEAR AHEAD…
The 2023 season on the LET is the first of its kind. Only seven years after the circuit was on the verge of collapse, there are 30 tournaments on the schedule, 12 of which boast funds of $1 million and over. Outside the Majors, the highest purse has come via Saudi Arabia with an Aramco Team Series worth $5 million.
The highlight of the year will come with the Solheim Cup at Finca Cortesin in Spain. With some Europeans moving to the LPGA Tour and others choosing to play less in America and more at home, it is too soon to hazard a guess as to how the European points list will look six months from now. However, a quick glance at the top 20 at the time of writing leads you to think there is unlikely to be anything in the way of a weak link. Maja Stark and Linn Grant, both highly talented Swedes and potential rookies, are leading the way.
Heaven knows what it will be like in the European Team room, what with Suzann Pettersen, the captain, having so many players under her wing, most of whom would seem to be out-and-out characters like herself. Stark, for instance, was a drummer in her schooldays and would sooner have attended a high school specialising in music than golf.
When she just missed out on a music scholarship, she accepted one for golf, and so started a career in which she won twice in 2021 on the LET and three times in 2022, with her victory in the ’22 ISPS Handa
World Invitational – a cosanctioned event – resulting in an LPGA Tour card.
Grant is another who will be playing more in America after becoming the first woman to win an event on the DP World Tour, the Volvo Scandinavian Mixed at Halmstad. She finished nine shots clear of the nearest man and 14 clear of the nearest woman.
Meanwhile, the third player on the European points list is Spaniard Carlota Ciganda, a Solheim Cup regular – she has played in five matches and been on the winning side in three. Nothing could do more to encourage local interest than her making the team. Safe to say it is going to be an exciting week and an exciting year as a whole.