Attending a live sports event or meeting your sporting role model can be inspiring experience, but for amateur Ellie Gower, the opportunity to caddie for Ladies European Tour professional Ellie Givens has motivated her to pursue her own golfing dreams.
Gower’s father, Brian, an English golf club professional based in France, brought his young daughter along to the Lacoste Ladies Open de France at Golf de Chantaco in 2014 when she was 12 and they decided to follow Ellie Givens, since they shared the same first name.
Young Ellie enjoyed the experience so much that they returned to watch Ellie every day and the pair became friends, keeping in regular contact through Facebook.
Gower was so inspired by the experience that she started to work seriously on her game and in 2015, Givens asked if she would like to caddie for her at the Lacoste Ladies Open de France, where she finished in 11th place. They worked together again in 2016 and this year. Inspired by the whole experience, Ellie has reduced her handicap from 36 to 0.6 in three years.
“Since her first trip to watch the LET in 2014, Ellie has improved drastically and she has been playing in the big amateur events in Britain and training with the England Girls’ Squad’s East Region. Her favourite golfer is Charley Hull and she always follows what is going on at each LET event,” said a proud Givens, 27, from Darlington.
Gower, who moved from England to France when she was three, said: “I love caddying and seeing how Ellie hits lots of different shots and how to stay calm, as well as how to read a yardage book. I think she hits on average around a club further than me, so I’ll be working on building up my muscles, as I want to get out on Tour one day.”
