With the players raising their game each year on the Ladies European Tour, there is every chance of a new all-time record being set in 2016. Here we take a look at the best performances on the LET over the last 37 years and what it will take to enter the history books this year.
Lowest 72 holes
Gwladys Nocera from France gave a record breaking performance at Lycke Golf Club back in September 2008, when she fired rounds of 66-62-65-66 to close the tournament at 29-under-par 259 and claim her ninth LET title at the Göteborg Masters in Sweden. This was an astonishing score… but will anyone get close to 30-under-par for the first time on the LET this year?
Lowest 54 holes
One player who came tantalisingly close to breaking that 72-hole record was Kylie Walker from Scotland, at the 2014 Ladies German Open presented by Marriott at Wörthsee Golf Club. With three opening rounds of eight-under-par 64, Walker posted a new 54-hole, three-round Ladies European Tour record of 192, 24-under-par, bettering Nocera’s 54-hole total from the Göteborg Masters by a stroke.
Lowest 36 holes
This record is currently held jointly by Gwladys Nocera (66-62) and Kylie Walker (64-64), who recorded 36-hole scores of 128, 16 under par, in the tournaments mentioned above.
Lowest 18 holes
So far, six players have shot an 11-under-par round on the Ladies European Tour including Trish Johnson (62 at the 1996 Ladies French Open, Round 1, Le Golf D’Arras); Kirsty Taylor (61 at the 2005 Wales Ladies Championship, Round 1, Machynys Peninsula Golf and Country Club), Nina Reis (61 at the 2008 Goteborg Masters, Round 4, Lycke Golf Club); Lisa Holm Sorensen (62 at the 2009 SAS Ladies Masters, Round 1, Larvik Golfklubb), Karrie Webb (61 at the 2010 ANZ Ladies Masters, Round 4, Royal Pines Resort; and So Yeon Ryu (61 at the 2012 Gold Coast RACV Australian Ladies Masters, Round 2, Royal Pines).
Indian amateur Aditi Ashok, 17, came extremely close to matching or even bettering this score in the third round of Lalla Aicha Tour School Final Qualifying in December 2015 when she carded 11 birdies in 17 holes before making a bogey on the last at Samanah Golf Club. Nevertheless, her 10-under-par 62 was a women’s course record and extremely promising for the year ahead.
Lowest 9 holes
Seven-under-par is the lowest nine-hole score recorded on the Ladies European Tour and a halfway score of 29 has been recorded 36 times, most recently by British Rookie Alex Peters during the ISPS HANDA Ladies European Masters at Buckinghamshire Golf Club last year.
Biggest margin of victory
The ‘Dame with Game’ Laura Davies cannot be beaten when it comes to the biggest margin of victory. She has now held the record of 16 strokes, achieved at the 1995 Guardian Irish Holidays Open at St Margaret’s, for 20 years. Davies also boasts the most wins on Tour, with 45.
Oldest winner
Davies’ record, achieved when she won the 2010 Hero Honda Women’s Indian Open aged 47, was broken in 2014 when Trish Johnson won the Aberdeen Asset Management Ladies Scottish Open aged 48. While Johnson turns 50 on 16th January, Davies is now 52 and both are still extremely competitive so there is every chance that this record could fall in 2016.
Youngest winner
Lydia Ko became the youngest ever winner in Ladies European Tour history when she won the 2013 ISPS HANDA New Zealand’s Women’s Open hosted by Christchurch as an amateur aged 15 years, 9 months, 17 days.
Most wins in a season
1988 was the year when Marie-Laure de Lorenzi dominated the Ladies European Tour with seven victories. She posted another all-time record in 1989 when she claimed three titles back to back.
Most wins in the same tournament
Australian Karrie Webb is the undisputed queen of the RACV Ladies Masters having won the title eight times from 1998-2013 and in recognition of this, the home heroine has a suite named after her at RACV Royal Pines Resort.
