Following an outstanding amateur career, Kirsten Rudgeley secured status on the Ladies European Tour for 2023 after finishing T9 at the Final Qualifier of LET Q-School.
The Aussie has represented her country at both junior and senior levels, with her first notable win coming at the Australian National school sports championship at the age of 15.
Climbing the ranks to become Australia’s number one ranked amateur in 2021, Rudgeley went on to secure victories at the Scottish Women’s Amateur Open Championship, English Amateur Championship and the New Zealand North Shore Classic.
Now chasing success in her rookie season on the LET, we caught up with Kirsten to reflect on her golfing journey, her amateur highlights, and her goals for 2023.
Hometown: Carramar, Western Australia
Home Course: Mount Lawley Golf Club
Age: 22
Started golf at: 7
Turned pro: 2022
Handicap: +6
I got into golf when I was seven. My dad took me to the driving range and just like any other kid I pretty much enjoyed it straightaway. I then started playing properly when I was about 11, and ended up having to choose between that and football, because I used to play a lot of football as well. But I went with golf… and here I am now! After that I managed to into my state team, then the Australian national team, so as a progressive, my golf just got better and better.
I literally only decided to turn professional just before LET Q-School! I just went over there and thought that I’ll give it a go… and then I got my card. It’s all been pretty relaxed so far really. Whatever happened, happened for me. There was no real pressure which definitely helped.
Q-School was a good experience. My uncle lives about hour and a half away from La Manga, so I was able to stay with him for a couple days before getting to the hotel on the course. So because of him I’d played in Spain a couple of times before. Q-School is a long two weeks, as it would be at any Q-School. It’s the hardest amount of golf you’ll ever play, but I played really well and was very happy to walk away with a card.
Playing for Australia has been awesome. The federation has been great to me the whole way through my amateur career. And even now, they’re still awesome and really supportive. So my amateur days were pretty cool, especially playing in the world team events and being able to travel the world with my teammates, it was great fun.
I played Augusta last year in the Augusta National Women’s Amateur. It was an awesome experience – one you definitely can’t buy, that’s for sure! That was a big reason I held off turning pro, because I knew I had the invite to play in it. For us women, it’s a once in a lifetime opportunity. The whole week was awesome. I brought my mum and dad, and with my dad being a big golfer too he was just in awe of the whole place. I didn’t even see him the whole time because he was here there and everywhere enjoying it. We had free access to go wherever we wanted, so I don’t know where he was! There wasn’t one bit of bad turf at all. Wherever you went. All the flowers, everything was perfect. We went down to the par-3 course as well and that was just as good as the main course.
I ended up playing in the AIG Women’s Open. I thought I’d go over to Scotland and see how I go. I was over there for tournaments anyway, so thought I’d play in a qualifier, which turned into three stages, three different qualifiers. But I ended up getting through and ended playing in the Open. It was a brutal experience at Carnousite, it was so hard. Obviously being from Australia, we’re not used to that sort of golf at all, and with qualifying being three days before it started, you don’t get that much preparation. So it was a good experience, but obviously I didn’t get much time to prepare. But that’s the way it is.
I’m loving life on the LET so far. There are a lot of new people that I’ve met and some people that I already knew, so I’m really enjoying it, it’s good fun. I think it’s going to be a good year and I’m really looking forward to it. I haven’t really set myself any goals. Golf is still a game where anything can happen, so I’m just going to go out there and be as prepared as I can and see what happens.
Quickfire Q&A
- Who is your hero? Karrie Webb
- What makes you happiest? Playing golf and travelling the world
- Best friend in golf? Kelsey Bennett
- Favourite food? Lasagna. When I played Q-School we found a Scottish pub and I had lasagna pretty much every night. I’ll put my success down to that…
- Golfing superstitions? I used to when I was little, but not anymore. Shoot the lowest score possible, that usually works!
- Favourite travel destination? Bali
- What is your most treasured possession? My Nike Dunks
- Favourite Course? Augusta National
- Dream fourball? Tiger Woods, Karrie Webb, Rory McIlroy, Tommy Fleetwood, and myself. Wait that’s five. Let them play and I’ll go watch.
