SMS award winner Liz Young claimed her maiden Ladies European Tour (LET) title on Saturday.
A total score of 12 under par gave the Englishwoman a one shot win at the VP Bank Swiss Ladies Open, played at Golfpark Holzhausern.
The victory was richly deserved after a strong 2022 that has seen Young rack up two top 10s and a further two top 15 finishes.
Though it was her first LET title, it was not Young’s first professional victory, after she won twice on the 2021 Rose Series, the events she helped found during the first Coronavirus lockdown in 2020. It was her strong performance in the 2020 events, as well as her dynamism in founding the series as a way to provide competitive events for female golfers during that uncertain time that led to her special SMS award, a £7,500 personal scholarship given by the late SMS Chairman, Stephen Proctor.
Heading into the final round with a one shot lead, a closing three under par 69 was enough to hold off Sweden’s Linn Grant, who famously became the first female winner on the DP World Tour earlier this year in the Scandinavian Mixed.
After an opening bogey, it would have been easy for Young to feel the nerves of trying to close out a first Tour level success, but she quickly recovered with a birdie on the par five third, notching another before the turn on the seventh. Two more birdies on the 11th and 14th holes presaged four closing pars to seal her triumph.
“I did feel it coming, I knew my game was good,” Liz reflected. “In Sotogrande (for the Aramco Team Series won by Nelly Corda) I didn’t play well, and I was burnt out, I took two weeks off which I needed and got my game back in shape. I knew my game was coming together and I was getting better and better – that’s why I’m still out here! I said I’d keep playing as long as I enjoy it and as long as I keep getting better – 14 years later we’re here. I hope my daughter is watching. I have been out here a while and never really been close to the win, but I’ve had some good results in strong field events. To finally get across the line is… yeah.”
Young now rises to 12th in the Race to the Costa Del Sol, the LET’s season long points list, while Grant jumps into the lead.
Sweden’s Grant leads the LET standings.
Liz won the SMS award for her work establishing and then her excellent play in the Rose Ladies Series in 2020.
