TEENAGER BABNIK
SECURES LET CARD
Reigning R&A Girls’ Amateur
champion Pia Babnik has
illustrated her impressive
talent after securing a
card at the fi nal stage of
Ladies’ European Tour (LET)
Qualifying School.
he 16-year-old Slovenian was
the youngest in the fi eld at
the La Manga Club in Spain
yet fi nished inside the top
20 to secure her playing rights on the
professional circuit for 2020.
Babnik, who plays off a +7 handicap
and is ranked sixth on the World
Amateur Golf Ranking®, continued her
rapid rise in the sport.
Last April, she won the Helen Holm
Scottish Women’s Open Championship
at Royal Troon, then went on to enjoy
more success in Scotland when she
produced a commanding display
to defeat Isabella Holpfer and win
the centenary R&A Girls’ Amateur
Championship at Panmure in August.
Babnik played impressively in blustery
conditions throughout the 18-hole Final
to defeat Austria’s Holpfer and then
competed in last year’s PING Junior
Solheim Cup at Gleneagles.
Babnik, who also made her fi rst start on
the LET in the Tipsport Czech Ladies
Pia Babnik
Open in August, was among 15 players
at Qualifying School to secure Category
8a status for 2020.
“Now I am one of (the) rookies on
the Ladies’ European Tour,” Babnik
tweeted. Earlier in the week, she said, “I
hope to play professional tournaments
and be the best.”
HEWSON JOY
Former Curtis Cup player Alice Hewson
also secured her playing rights for the
year ahead after a top-fi ve performance.
“ It was Amy Boulden who topped qualifying overall, winning by
three strokes from Argentina’s Magdalena Simmermacher and Alison
Muirhead from Scotland. The Welsh player, the 2014 LET Rookie of
the Year, closed the final stage with a round of five-under-par 68 on
the South Course for a 90-hole total of 10-under-par.
South Africa’s Monique Smit secured the 20th card with a birdie four
on the second extra hole after a four-way play-off on the 18th against
Manon Gidali from France, Leonie Harm from Germany and Mireia
Prat from Spain. ”
Hewson, from Hertfordshire in
England, took the fi nal spot in Category
5c by fi nishing in fi fth place on fi ve-
under-par. The 22-year-old, who turned
professional last September, was a
member of the 2016 and 2018 Great
Britain and Ireland Curtis Cup teams,
the 2015 and 2017 GB&I Vagliano
Trophy teams, and became the fi rst
Englishwoman to play competitively
at Augusta National in last year’s
inaugural Augusta National Women’s
Amateur Championship.
After a closing 69, she said, “It was
really good out there. I got off to a really
solid start and fi nally started holing
some putts in the middle of the round. I
had a couple of interesting holes coming
in but I stuck to my game plan the whole
time and was aggressive.
“It’s really special to get my full card,
especially this year, with how many
events the Ladies European Tour has
got this year. It’s going to be a great
opportunity and I’m excited to get
travelling.”
GolfPlus Junior March-April 2020
15