Chiara Tamburlini is back at the scene of her second Ladies European Tour (LET) victory and ready to defend her Lacoste Ladies Open de France crown.
This year’s Lacoste Ladies Open de France marks the 35th edition of the tournament and will see 96 players including 17 French stars tee it up from 25-27 September.
Tamburlini has good memories here after she defeated Australia’s Kirsten Rudgeley in a one-hole playoff at Golf Barrière in Deauville.
“It is really windy, I don’t remember it being like this last year at all! The course does play a little bit different, it’s a bit firmer but I obviously have a lot of good memories and it was really cool to come back here,” she said.
“The set up is quite similar with all the art, which I think is cool. I’m really excited for this week; I’ve had a couple of good finishes recently so trying to build on that.
“I went into the final round with a one-shot lead and on the back nine, things started to not go my way at all. I was one shot back with two to play and made an incredible birdie on 17 and then I birdied the first playoff hole.
“I think that’s what made it really sweet. I came more from behind whereas, the other wins I have been out in front pretty much the whole day. I think that’s what made it a bit more special and also just to be able to perform when it matters the most is really special.”
Tamburlini, who won the 2024 LET Order of Merit and Rookie of the Year titles, has been on a good run of form in September.
The Swiss star has recorded three consecutive top-10 finishes and has a total of nine top-10 finishes for the 2025 LET season.
She continued: “My time off has been the biggest factor to this form. I took Sweden off, so I got a bit of a break in August. I felt like I played pretty well in Scottish, AIG and London, but I was just getting tired.
“I kept feeling that on Sundays I was moving down the leaderboard because I was low on energy. After the break, I have been able to move up leaderboards on Sundays, which is a bit nicer. That’s been huge to recharge and get back to full energy.”
With her great run of results, Tamburlini has moved up to fifth in the 2025 LET Order of Merit and now has 1,483.08 points.
However, she’s not focusing on the rankings and adding another victory to her tally is priority number one.
She added: “The Order of Merit has been a little bit on my mind, but I’ve been thinking about it more for finishing top 10 for LPGA Q-Series, which is a goal of mine. I was ninth before Houston and I’m up to fifth now.
“I’m going to play four more events and if I were to get a win, it would become possible, but I wouldn’t say it’s my main priority. I would say the win is top of my priority list because I want to get one win before this season ends.
“It’s hard to go into a tournament wanting to win and wanting to defend because it’s so much extra pressure from outside and within. I don’t think I’ve ever won a tournament I went into going I really want to win this. It’s about smaller goals.
“It’s three rounds, it’s a strong field and Celine [Boutier] is here as well. Eight of the top 10 on the Order of Merit are here, it’s a really strong field, so I’m going to set myself smaller goals to achieve the big goal at the end.”
Tamburlini gets her title defence underway at 8.39 am (local time) alongside Germany’s Laura Fünfstück and Australia’s Rudgeley.
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