Kelsey Bennett heads into her second-ever Major championship off the back of a runner-up finish at last week’s Hulencourt Women’s Open on the Ladies European Tour (LET).
The Australian led at the 54-hole mark in Belgium but ended up losing out to Spain’s Carolina Chacarra by three strokes.
However, Bennett is still having the best season of her life having secured her maiden LET title in March and sits third in the LET Order of Merit at the halfway stage of the season.
“It was good,” she said. “I played well. It wasn’t a week where I played unreal, but I didn’t really do anything wrong either. So, it was quite a solid golfing week, really. Sunday was a bit disappointing, but to be in that position you can’t complain.
“I’ve got a new 60 (wedge) in the bag for this stretch and we’re not friends yet. We even weren’t overly friends last week, but it was better than in Dutch. [In her off week] I just went back and had a week off and did lots of work and spoke with my coach and we went through what we’ve been working on anyway and just did a lot of practice.”
Heading into the Hulencourt Women’s Open, Bennett used a different mindset on the course after speaking with her mental coach.
Instead of focusing on the scores, she set herself a daily goal of a target number to reach and used that as a point of focus.
She explained: “I had a call with my mindset coach at the start of the week. I actually caught up with him when I was in London because he’s over from Australia. I caught up with him there and we went through, rather than thinking about an overall score, we went through setting goals for each day.
“The first day the goal was to try and be leading after the first round, which I wasn’t. I was only two-under and then my goal the second day was to get to five-under. I managed to get to seven-under and then I wanted to get to double digits after day three, which I did.
“I was on 10 and then I was trying to beat my Magenta [winning] score, which was 13-under via Sunday, but obviously that didn’t quite work. It was a different mindset for the week, which I really enjoyed. I actually didn’t really know what my score was too much during the rounds, which is something different for me.”
The LET winner has played at Evian Resort Golf Club before having teed it up at the Jabra Ladies Open de France twice before including just six weeks ago.
Bennett is looking forward to this week competing in her second Major championship, having played the 2023 AIG Women’s Open, and her first Amundi Evian Championship.
The 26-year-old isn’t putting any pressure on herself rather that she wants to soak in the experience and enjoy playing against the best players in the world.
She added: “It’s definitely good to be able to get that prep in not too long before this event. It’s game changing I reckon, yes, we play it a little bit longer for this week, but it’s just getting used to the grass and the conditions and the heat. It’s great.
“This is only my second Major I’ve ever played and obviously, my first time at Evian, it’s awesome. It’s just a whole other vibe to see all the LPGA girls. I went to register and Nelly [Korda] was right next to me and I was like woah. It’s cool. It’s really good.
“I ran into Hannah [Green] at the range and they were super lovely and all the other girls are really nice. They’re super welcoming. It’s nice to see them all and I saw Grace [Kim] playing holes when I was having breakfast. I thought that’s why she won it last year because I’m here eating food, and she’s out there playing golf!
“I’m just going to really enjoy it. Michael [my caddie] and I, this is our first major together, so that’s something really cool. My partner is here, so I’m just going to really take it all in and enjoy it and just try and play my best golf.”
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