If you’d have told Laura Beveridge at the end of last year that she’d be competing for LET titles with Solheim Cup stars she’d have more than likely not believed you.
After shooting an open round score of 82 at 2021 Q-School it looked as if her hopes of an LET card were in tatters last December, before storming back to seal a T19 finish on the final day to earn herself playing rights for the season.
And after getting through by the skin of her teeth the 33-year-old has gone from strength to strength in the 2022 season, with consecutive career-best finishes on the LET in her previous two events heading into the Big Green Egg Open this week.
A T4 finish at the Amundi German Masters was followed up with a runners-up spot at the Estrella Damm Ladies Open last time out, as she finished behind Solheim Cup star Carlota Ciganda by two shots in Spain.
And after such a dramatic turnaround in fortunes, the Scot is eager to keep her impressive run of form going in the Netherlands this week, and continue a run of eleven consecutive rounds under par.
“I’m just a bit more comfortable on the golf course, and if it happens this week again that would be great,” Beveridge said.
“It feels like I’m meant to be here, I’ve been on and off the LET for a number of years, and there have been spells where I played good, but never a run like this. I’ve had good rounds but never complete tournaments, so it’s nice and it feels like I’m supposed to be here.
“It was a bit surreal being second to Carlota Ciganda and I’m in the photos next to her at the end as well, I played against her in the European Amateurs when I was about 18, and since then she’s always been someone that I’ve aspired to be like, so it’s a bit surreal that I finished two shots behind her in the final day.
“I didn’t even look at numbers, I didn’t realise I’d shot back-to-back 66s over the weekend, we were just trying to make birdies, but at the end it really sank in.”
After a number of years splitting her time between the Ladies European Tour and the LET Access Series, Beveridge earned herself full playing rights for the 2020 season with a fourth-placed finish on the LETAS Order of Merit.
And after a Covid-19 disrupted season, the Scot also featured heavily in 2021, with a T30 finish at the Creekhouse Ladies Open the highlight of the year, before her do or die performance at La Manga at the end of the year got her back in the mix for 2022.
It seems the lessons of yesteryear have been learned, and the Aberdeen-born star is thriving heading into the busy summer months, and has a smile on her face while she is doing so.
“I shot 82 on the first day of Q-School then 66 the next day, which could possibly be the worst then best round someone has ever had!” Beveridge recalls.
“I’m just trying to be a bit more relaxed about it, you just have to be accepting of what happens on the golf course, if it happens it’s great and if it doesn’t we go again.
“I’m just having a lot of fun with it now, I’m 33 and not getting any younger so I might as well start enjoying this game, and that way there’s less pressure on it.”
One thing that was clear from Beveridge’s superb performance in Spain last week was her newfound confidence on the greens. Short putts, long putts, she was dropping them in from all angles in Sitges, with a 60-footer on the 17th on Saturday the pick of the bunch.
And with the rest of her game coming together on tournament days, she has every confidence in herself to push on even further as we head into the second half of the season.
“We found something in my setup for my putting – my shoulders weren’t parallel to my feet – and changed that slightly which allows my putter to come back square, and that feels nice for the longer ones, so I’m holing more longer putts than ever,” she said.
“We’ve done a lot of work on the tempo in my swing, because technically my swing was always looking good but it was breaking down in a tournament, and the only thing that changed was my tempo from practice into tournament days.
“We’re trying to slow everything down, and maybe hitting it about 80% on the course, and that helps me keep control of the club face through impact if I’m slowing it down.”
