This column has been written before Lauren Walsh bids to win a LPGA Tour card via the final stage of Q-Series. If she doesn’t get through then it really is no harm. However, if she is successful then it only hammers home the point the columnist is trying to make that Walsh is one of Europe’s brightest talents.
Say what you want about the quality and depth of the Ladies European Tour but in her first two seasons as a professional, the Castlewarden woman has finished 18th and 10th in the LET Order of Merit – the latter securing her a spot in LPGA Q-Series this week.
Walsh has been a model of consistency ever since she turned professional, registering eleven top-10 finishes in 47 starts and she has amassed just over €360,000 in prize money.
Earlier in the year she suffered a disappointing week at the pre-qualifier for the LPGA Q-Series initially costing her a place in the final stage. She knuckled down again and gave herself a second bite at the cherry.
The question is where is the best place for Walsh to play next year? Yes, the LPGA Tour is the end goal. She will want to test herself against the best players in the world on a regular basis.
But the Ladies European Tour is a good breeding ground for players even if it provides little reward in terms of progression.
The men’s DP World Tour is much maligned for dishing out ten PGA Tour cards to its highest not already exempt finishers in the Race to Dubai. Many see it as a feeder tour to the PGA Tour as it lets its best players go each year while others see it as a tour that gives maximum reward to its best young players.
The Ladies European Tour is neither. What’s Shannon Tan’s reward for topping the season long list? Nothing. What did Chiara Tamburlini get last year? Nothing. A spot in the final stage of LPGA Q-Series is little reward.
Walsh should be confident of giving herself a great chance of clinching one of the 25 available cards this week, but is it the best place for her next year?
The Solheim Cup returns to European soil next year as it heads to the Netherlands for the first time, with Bernardus Golf – a course previously used for the Dutch Open on the DP World Tour – confirmed as the venue.
The qualifying format for the European team gives a chance to those on the LET with the top-two on the points list from the tour given automatic picks.
Given Walsh’s improvement in each of her two years as a professional, she would surely be a contender for the Solheim Cup team via this route.
As Pádraig Harrington often says, it can be better to become a big fish in a small pond and dominate in your arena before moving through the levels.
Walsh hasn’t won yet as a professional and in her eleven top-10 finishes there have been multiple flirts with victory. It only seems to be delaying the inevitable that she will win on the LET and she could even become a multiple winner once the floodgates open.
Yes, winning a LPGA Tour card this week would be a fantastic achievement and to have three players (Leona Maguire, Stephanie Meadow) playing in America would represent great growth for Irish women’s golf, but it wouldn’t be the end of the world if she came up short.
The Ladies European Tour is brimming with young talent and Walsh is up there with the likes of Mimi Rhodes, Nastasia Nadaud, Chiara Tamburlini and Helen Briem.
