Two weeks after Nataliya Guseva earned her LPGA card at Q-Series, the Russian-born player headed to Morocco on a quest for Ladies European Tour status. Guseva didn’t just earn a second tour card, she dominated the field, winning the 2024 Lalla Aicha Q-School by four shots.
Guseva, 20, closed with a 69 to finish at 23-under 340 over five rounds. A winner on the Epson Tour in 2023 at the Black Desert Resort Championship, Guseva became the first player from Russia to earn LPGA status on Dec. 5 when she tied for 23rd at LPGA Q-Series.
“It’s amazing,” said Guseva, who played collegiate golf at the Univeristy of Miami. “It’s crazy that I came here already with my LPGA tour card and then just coming here and winning LET Q-School, it’s something I have always dreamed of.”
The Russian flag does not appear by Guseva’s name on the LPGA and LET websites because of International Olympic Committee guidelines. At the 2024 Olympics in Paris, individuals who qualify from Russia will compete as neutral athletes. No flag, anthem or colors from Russia will be displayed at the Games.
Maria Verchenova, the first Russian to earn LET status, competed in the 2016 Olympic Games in Rio, carding a course-record 62 before ultimately finishing tied for 16th.
A total of 22 players earned Category 12 membership status on the LET for 2024, while 30 players clinched Category 16 membership.
South Africa’s Cara Gorlei finished second at 19 under while Thailand’s Aunchisa Utama placed solo third.
Amateur Annabell Fuller, a fifth-year senior at the University of Florida, took a share of fifth while Texas Techs’ Shannon Tan of Singapore tied for eighth.
Spain’s Teresa Toscano made a tremendous final-round statement with a closing 64 to finish tied for 10th.
“I wasn’t driven in the same way some of the other ladies are on tour.”
Natalie Srinivasan’s greatest strength as a golfer was her mind. She had an uncanny ability to block things out, to the point that Furman coach Jeff Hull would come up and ask, “Are you alive? Can I check your pulse?”
“When I started to lose that mind control,” she said, “that’s when I knew I couldn’t do this. The passion wasn’t there.”
Srinivasan finished out the 2022 season on the Epson Tour in October and began studying for the Medical College Admission Test in November. Her clubs still haven’t made it out of the travel case, but she was recently accepted into the Medical University of South Carolina College of Medicine, where she will start school next fall.
Srinivasan follows the footsteps of not only her father, but of two other former Epson Tour players who are already in medical school: August Kim and Janet Mao.
“I think the three of us will always have a special bond,” said Srinivasan.
The pipeline continues on with Dylan Kim (no relation), a former standout at Baylor and Arkansas, who is currently in the process of studying for the MCAT, and Jaclyn Lee, an Ohio State grad and LPGA player who is in the process of making the switch to med school.
Kim, a former Big Ten conference champion who played for Purdue, has already been president of her class at Vanderbilt School of Medicine. The 28-year-old wants to study orthopedic surgery so that she can work with athletes. Kim’s younger sister, Auston, recently graduated from the Epson Tour and earned an LPGA card. The pair spent five months together as touring pros before August shifted gears to medicine, which has always been her long-term goal.
Mao, a neuroscience major at Northwestern who won NCAA regionals in 2016, quit playing golf competitively in 2021 so that she could begin the 18-month process of getting into medical school. The average applicant applies to 20 schools, Mao said, and Northwestern graduates average around 25 applications. That’s about where Mao landed, who pumped out essays for two months straight.
Mao was accepted to Emory, where her father is a research scientist, last fall and began an intense week of shadowing, “Week on the Wards,” in mid-July. Mao isn’t quite sure what kind of medicine she wants to specialize in, but she does plan to graduate in 2028 with an M.D. and a master’s degree in public health.
Mao said of the 141 people in her class, 90 percent are non-traditional students, or people like her who have taken time to do different things after undergrad. Mao hopes that young golfers with a dream of studying medicine will see that it’s possible to keep that dream alive – and study in the sciences – while playing Division I college golf.
“Don’t shy away from it,” Mao said.
Janet Mao poses with her family at Emory’s White Coat Ceremony. (courtesy photo)
All three of these elite college players had med school in mind when they were recruited to play college golf. Kim knew she’d found a good fit when she walked into the science wing at Purdue and saw the copper bust of a Nobel Prize winner in chemistry.
“It was the perfect mix,” said Kim, who studied biochemistry.
Mao went to Northwestern as a premed major and developed a desire to play golf professionally while in college. As a child, her father would fuel her curiosity in the sciences with questions like “Why do you think the leaves are changing colors?” He’d also take her to work.
“He’d put me in the MRI scanner,” said Mao of her early interest in medicine.
While Mao was competing on the Epson Tour, she took advantage of a service that was offered called Next Play Coaching. The one-hour sessions were designed to help players reassess their values and goals and release anxiety about the future.
Mao found a deeper passion for the game in college than she’d felt in junior golf and thought she should give the professional ranks a try. While she did enjoy aspects of tour life, Mao realized that she was playing to prove something to herself and to others, and that pressure was weighing her down.
“I wasn’t playing to become the best in the world one day,” she said. “I wasn’t driven in the same way some of the other ladies are on tour.”
Srinivasan’s father, Ajai, graduated from MUSC in 1996, and Natalie is proud to follow his lead. Ajai, a general surgeon in Spartanburg, South Carolina, played high-level tennis in India before moving to the U.S. for college.
Juli Inkster, Taylor Totland, Natalie Srinivasan and Pat Hurst during the Inkster Senior Award retreat. (Photo: Natalie Srinivasan)
Natalie was the kid in the seventh grade who enjoyed dissecting the frog while many of her friends were grossed out. Like Mao, it wasn’t until college that Srinivasan decided to give professional golf a shot, especially after a senior year that, while cut short by the COVID-19 pandemic, saw her win the 2020 ANNIKA Award, PING WGCA National Player of the Year and the inaugural Juli Inkster Senior Award, which comes with a two-day retreat with the Hall of Famer player.
“Juli has taken me in like one of her own,” said Srinivasan of the down-to-earth legend who helped with caddies, courses and her transition to life after golf.
“She just wanted me to be happy.”
It took Srinivasan some time before she could admit out loud that she didn’t want to play golf anymore. The solitary life of professional golf, which demands the athlete put herself first to succeed, didn’t mesh with Srinivasan’s personality. She missed her Furman teammates and the idea of playing for something bigger than herself.
One week after Alison Lee lost in a playoff on the LPGA, she ran laps around the field in Riyadh.
One week after Alison Lee lost in a playoff on the LPGA, she ran laps around the field in Saudi Arabia. Lee shot a mind-boggling 61-61-65 at the Ladies European Tour’s Aramco Team Series event at Riyadh Golf Club.
Lee smashed the LET’s 36-hole scoring record by six shots with her 22-under total.
She went on to beat the field by eight shots, finishing at 29-under 187, which matches the tour’s tournament scoring record. Spain’s Carlota Ciganda, the recent hero of the Solheim Cup, finished solo second after rounds of 65-63-67. Charley Hull finished third at 18 under.
“I made a lot of really good putts,” said Lee of her opening brilliance. “Statistically [this season], driver, greens-in-regulation, everything’s been really good. But I just haven’t been able to get that confidence in the putter and that’s been the biggest thing.”
𝗧𝗛𝗘 𝗦𝗧𝗔𝗥 𝗜𝗡 𝗥𝗜𝗬𝗔𝗗𝗛 🌟@alisonlee wins the @Aramco_Series in Riyadh & equals the LET low tournament scoring record on -29 🏆
On the LPGA, the American Lee lost in overtime last Sunday to Australia’s Minjee Lee at the BMW Ladies Championship. Alison has two other top-10 finishes on the LPGA this season.
Alison’s first professional victory came at the 2021 Aramco event at Sotogrande. A former No. 1 in the World Amateur Golf Ranking, the 28-year-old former UCLA student turned professional in 2014 after winning the final stage of LPGA Q-School.
Lilia Vu, a two-time major winner who currently ranks No. 1 in the world, finished eighth in Saudi Arabia. Minjee placed sixth.
The LET’s Saudi-backed events remain controversial given the wide-ranging human rights abuses Saudi Arabia has been accused of, especially toward women.
“But yeah, like I said I’m really happy with my round.”
Alison Lee has had a record-setting start at the Aramco Team Series Riyadh in Saudi Arabia on the Ladies European Tour.
Lee, the 28-year-old American, finished second last week at the LPGA’s BMW Ladies Championship in Korea. This week, she’s well on her way to hoisting a trophy after posting consecutive 61s at Riyadh Golf Club.
With a 36-hole score of 22 under, Lee smashed the previous two-day tally set by Gwladys Nocera (2008 Goteborg Masters), Kylie Henry (2014 Ladies German Open), Anne van Dam (2018 Estralla Damm Ladies Open) and Emily Kristine Pedersen (2020 Tipsport Czech Ladies Open), which stood at 16-under. Her 61s match the lowest round in LET history, and in the opening round, she set a new record with eight consecutive birdies.
“If you told me at the beginning of the week I was going to shoot 22 under after two days I wouldn’t have believed you,” Lee said. “So I’m really happy with where I am right now. I made a lot of really good putts. Statistically [this season], driver, greens-in-regulation, everything’s been really good. But I just haven’t been able to get that confidence in the putter and that’s been the biggest thing.
“[But] this week I feel really good, the speed has been great. I’ve been able to putt very aggressively, especially out here which you need [to do] if you want to make birdies. I wish I could give you an answer as to why. I’ve been working really hard with my putting coach back home.”
Lee had a putt for 60 on the closing hole, but her birdie attempt came up just short. However, a tap-in for 61 and a six-shot lead over Carlota Ciganda made for the best 36-hole stretch of her career.
“With five holes left, I kind of knew right then and there, ‘OK, let’s try and make a charge here,'” Lee continued. “Unfortunately, I left my putt short on 16, so I was a little disappointed. And it was a tricky putt I had [on 18]. I had to take it out pretty far to the left and let it break.
“But yeah, like I said I’m really happy with my round.”
An unfortunate turn of events may have contributed to Anne Van Dam’s demise at the KPMG Women’s Irish Open.
An unfortunate turn of events may have contributed to Anne van Dam’s demise at the KPMG Women’s Irish Open, which wrapped up on Sunday.
While heading to the first playoff hole via cart, van Dam and a Ladies European Tour official tried to get under a rope, but it caught her driver and snapped it immediately as the bag was forced to the ground. And van Dam was set to square off with Denmark’s Smilla Tarning Soenderby and Sweden’s Lisa Pettersson in the playoff after all three finished at 16 under for the tournament.
Unfortunately, this was van Dam’s backup driver as her main driver was damaged during a flight to Ireland.
Since she couldn’t get a replacement, van Dam hit 3-wood on the first playoff hole, and although she got home in two on the par-5, she missed an eagle putt. Meanwhile, Soenderby knocked her approach to 12 feet and dropped her putt to take her first title.
Although van Dam has five wins on the LET, but hasn’t found the winner’s circle since the Spanish Women’s Open in 2019.
Both Pano and Brown were first-time winners at the joint women’s and men’s event in Northern Ireland.
Alexa Pano got her first LPGA win for her birthday.
The teenage phenom turned 19 on Sunday and picked up a hard-earned victory at the 2023 ISPS Handa World Invitational at Galgorm Castle Golf club in Antrim, Northern Ireland.
Pano took down both Esther Henseleit and Gabriella Cowley – who all finished regulation at 8 under – in a three-way, three-hole playoff. Henseleit was eliminated first with a bogey on the par-5 18th. Pano and Cowley made par to force a third playing of No. 18, where Pano won with birdie.
“Gosh, this is so surreal. I mean, I still haven’t processed it,” said Pano after the round. “I couldn’t process it on 18 green, but still, kind of sinking in right now. Just so cool.”
“Yeah, definitely was not conservative at all today,” said Pano. “I struggled a little bit off the tee, but other than that I was able to be aggressive. Luckily my putter was hot today, so that was helpful.”
Pano shot a 6-under 66 in the final round and forced a playoff with a pair of birdies on Nos. 17 and 18 after a late bogey on the par-4 16th. The Florida native didn’t know the situation on the leaderboard until someone on No. 17 made a comment.
“He was like, ‘shouldn’t have made bogey there.’ Kind of rude, but it motivated me to make two birdies back-to-back,” said Pano. “And so I did know going into 17, but that’s the only reason why. Those back-to-back birdies I knew I had to do, and luckily I did.”
After she earned her card for the season via LPGA Q-Series, Pano has made just five cuts in her rookie year, with one top-20 finish in addition to her win in 12 starts. She’s the third rookie to win this season and one of eight first-time winners on the season.
“Yeah, that’s pretty cool,” Pano said of the fact that she’s the youngest winner of the season at 19. “Was almost 18 but I guess I’m just better at 19.”
Before skipping college to turn professional, Pano had a decorated junior golf career and was a three-time Drive, Chip and Putt national finalist and the youngest player in the inaugural Augusta National Women’s Amateur. She also featured in the 2012 Netflix documentary, The Short Game.
The ISPS Handa World Invitational is a unique event on the schedule as it features two competitions being held at the same time with 144 women and 144 men playing for $1.5 million in prize money.
On the men’s side, Daniel Brown ran away with a five-shot victory to claim his first victory in just his 20th start. Brown had just three top-10 starts entering the week, with a best finish of T-5 in March at the South African Open.
“It feels amazing. I could never have dreamed this up in the past however many years and months,” said Brown. “(My mom was) blubbering down the phone. I’m over the moon, but it probably hasn’t sunk in yet. I don’t know. I almost still feel like someone’s going to crop up and say there’s another day left or something. Crazy.”
Brown took the lead on Thursday with a 6-under 64 and cruised to victory in the final round with a 1-under 69. Alex Fitzpatrick (68) finished second at 10 under, with Eddie Pepperell (68) in third at 7 under.
Unique event not on future schedule
This event, which showcases LPGA, LET and DP World Tour players, is not on the 2024 DP World Tour schedule, which was released last week.
Organizers told BBC Sport there are plans for another big event in the region, but the mixed format – in which male and female players compete for the same size purse – will not be extended.
ANTRIM, Northern Ireland – A twinkle surfaced in Olivia Mehaffey’s eyes as she fondly recalled the last time her father graced the fairways at one of her events, the 2021 playing of the ISPS Handa World Invitational.
Philip Mehaffey hadn’t gotten out of bed in months after being diagnosed with colon cancer in 2020, but after a motorized scooter was delivered to his home in the small village of Scarva, Northern Ireland, he came to see his daughter make good in her first LPGA start.
Although she expected him to simply make a quick appearance, Olivia was utterly impressed by her father’s determination to see her play, and the support helped spur her on to a top-20 finish.
“I kept looking every fairway and I’m like, oh, my gosh he’s still here. I think he needs to go home,” Mehaffey said Wednesday at Galgorm Castle Golf Club as she prepared for the final playing of the ISPS Handa International, as it was announced this week the event was not included in the 2024 DP World Tour schedule.
“So just having him there every round was so nice for me. So I think probably just those memories and like how special it was to have him there beside me every shot, every hole.”
Soon after her triumphant home debut, Mehaffey’s life slipped into a dark place. Her father succumbed to the disease in December 2021, and the former Arizona State star – one of three Sun Devils to earn All-American honors in all four years of college – threw herself headfirst into the game as a means to deal with the pain.
To open the 2022 season, Mehaffey subjected herself to a golf gauntlet; an eight-week stretch of consecutive tournaments that saw her passport stamped in South Africa, Thailand, Australia and Spain. When it was over, her game was slipping and she was flirting with a dangerous mixture of exhaustion and uncertainty, both on the golf course and off. She finally had a self-diagnosed breakdown after pulling out of the Skafto Open in Sweden nearly a year ago.
That’s when Mehaffey knew she needed time to process what she’d been through. Away from the game she loves.
“Grief is the weirdest thing I’ve ever been through,” she told the Irish Times as part of a fascinating read. “I think that’s one of the reasons people don’t talk much about it. It’s because it’s so hard to explain. You don’t know when it’s going to come.
“I’ve had times when I’ve felt totally fine, and then all it’s taken is one thought to trigger it and I’m a mess. And in life, we’re basically taught that everything can be answered. But everyone’s experience is so different, it comes to different people in different ways and at different times. That’s what makes it hard for people to understand.”
Olivia Mehaffey and her father, Philip, and mother, Evelyn
She put the clubs down. She stopped thinking about attacking flags and started contemplating what made her tick. After months of reflection, Mehaffey posted on her personal blog at the beginning of 2023 that she was emerging from the depths she’d suffered through.
“As I look back and reflect on the last 12 months, it is easy to only see the hurt, the hard times and the tears. I still feel the scars that 2022 has given me. But I am also able to see the progress. I know where I was, the dark places I experienced alone and felt the lowest I ever have. I also see the progress,” she said. “I recognize the work I have put into getting myself out of a dark hole and the improvements, although it still isn’t where I want it to be. I am proud of myself for stepping out of my comfort zone, for being brave to get help and for admitting to my struggles. I know 2022 has given me the ability to have new tools and strategies that I have never had before.”
To see her this week at the ISPS Handa, back in the comfort of her homeland, is to see a player who seems to have found the balance necessary to succeed. She bounced through the media center for interviews Wednesday with the wide smile and long blonde locks that made her look native to the Tempe, Arizona, campus where she spent so many successful seasons.
Mehaffey posted a best-ever third-place finish on the LET Tour at the Ladies Open By Pickala Rock Resort in Finland a few weeks ago, and she hopes that with friends and family on hand this week, she’ll be ready to again do her father proud, even if he’s not following along on each fairway.
“At the start of the year I didn’t set any goals. Normally I set where I want to finish, order of merit, world ranking, try and win tournaments. I didn’t do any of that this year,” she said. “I just wanted to come back from my break last year and really enjoy golf, and frankly I’m doing that again, which is great. So I’m just going to keep that same mentality for the rest of the year.
“I think when you’re enjoying it you’re playing good, so that’s sort of my only goal. Try not to put no pressure on myself, no expectations, which is difficult at times to manage, but I think it’s very important.”
Mehaffey prepared for a busy stretch by employing a strategy she hadn’t been comfortable with in the past – staying away from tournament golf. When she starts her first round today at Galgorm Castle, she will have been off the road for three full weeks.
The balance seems to have put her at peace.
“It’s been nice having a few weeks off. Took the first week and didn’t play. Felt like I was getting a little bit burnt out; played a lot of golf,” Mehaffey said. “And then last two weeks just working a lot with my coach. It’s been nice to prepare for this. It’s going to be a really busy finish to the rest of the year. The LET schedule is pretty busy.
“So a lot of practicing and just really get prepared for obviously Irish Open after this as well. It’s great to have two events at home in a row.”
Nelly Korda is hoping her third LET title is a springboard into the final two LPGA majors of the season.
Korda completed a wire-to-wire victory at Centurion Club on Sunday, winning the individual title in the LET’s Aramco Team Series presented by PIF – London.
Korda dominated the week and started the final round with a six-shot lead. She finished at 11 under and won by four over England’s Charley Hull.
“I am hoping that I can take this momentum into the next couple of weeks, I have Evian and the AIG Women’s Open coming up and hopefully I have learned a little bit about the weather this week and I can take that momentum into the next two big events,” Korda said. “I’m going to see my grandparents tomorrow. I have a couple of friends here right now, so we’ll celebrate after. I’ll be very full tomorrow.”
It’s Korda’s 13th worldwide professional win.
South Africa’s Nicole Garcia was third, while Ireland’s Leona Maguire earned solo fourth. England’s Georgia Hall was solo fifth.
Hall won the team title alongside Kylie Henry, Lea Anne Bramwell and amateur Michael Austick.
During the first round of the Aramco Team Series event in London at the Centurion Club on the Ladies European Tour, Hull made birdie on Nos. 3 and 5 before disaster struck.
She stumbled her way to a quintuple-bogey 10 on the par-5 sixth and was all of a sudden 3 over for her round.
To her credit, she came back swinging.
Hull immediately made birdie on No. 7 and added another at the ninth to go out in 1-over 38. After making the turn, she made four straight birdies on Nos. 12-15 before adding two more on 17 and 18. Her 5-under 68 is one of the most impressive scorecards you’ll ever see.
“I just lost two balls on a birdie-able par-5. I hit my first tee shot out of bounds and then hit my fourth shot out of bounds. But then to make 10 birdies to shoot five-under was pretty fun,” she said after her round.
“It was a birdie-able par-5, if I’d have made a birdie, I’d have been 11 under. But I felt confident even after I made the ten. I birdied the next couple of holes, so it was good.”
After the morning wave, Hull was in a tie for first with Nelly Korda at 5 under.
Noja is fifth in the 2023 Race to Costa Del Sol rankings for LET Player of the Year.
Chiara Noja joins an impressive list of players – Brooke Henderson, Paula Creamer and Lexi Thompson – who made their professional debuts at the ShopRite LPGA Classic as sponsor exemptions.
The 17-year-old won her first LET title last November at age 16 at the Aramco Team Series event in Jeddah, defeating Charley Hull in a two-hole playoff. Noja finished runner-up last week at the Belgian Ladies Open and has seven top-15 finishes so far on the LET this season. She’s currently fifth in the 2023 Race to Costa Del Sol rankings for LET Player of the Year.
Noja, who is still in high school, makes only her second start on U.S. soil this week in New Jersey. She heads next to her native Berlin for the Amundi German Masters and then home to Dubai for prom.
“I actually do enjoy being in this school and being a regular person out there,” she said. “Then coming back to golf and you just feel a lot more refreshed.”
At 6-feet tall, Noja averages 295 yards off the tee on the Ladies European Tour but says she doesn’t swing full throttle in competition. Her swing speed of 106 mph is plenty, she noted, because hitting the fairway remains priority.
“When I was like 13, I had a bit of back pain because I think I was just swinging it too fast for my frame,” she said, “so we’ve made sure that I’m just swinging healthy and efficiently, and that’s what I’ve done or the last two years.”
Currently No. 94 in the world, Noja won’t turn 18 until next March and would need special permission from the tour to attend LPGA Q-Series later this year.
“I’m hoping I can go to Q-School at the end of the year,” said Noja, “but it’s dependant on my age, so we’ll see what the answer is to that.”
