Eleanor (Ellie) Givens gave an impressive display on her first outing as a professional at the Lalla Meryem Cup in Morocco. She holed two bunker shots, played in the last group on the third day and eventually finished in a share of 22nd position. Here we hear her thoughts on her first start on tour.
Ellie wrote:
 |
Hi everyone!
I’ll give you a quick introduction; my name is Ellie Givens and I am from Darlington, England. I graduated in June 2011 from the University of Denver in Colorado with a finance major and economics minor, then made the decision to turn pro. I went to LPGA and LET Q-schools after graduation and then decided to turn pro shortly after. It’s something I have been looking forward to doing for a while now so I am so excited to see what this year has in store for me! My father is a golf professional so I have grown up around golf, but had my first lesson when I was 6 years old and played my first tournament when I was 12. I always enjoyed playing sports at school and seemed to be a member of almost every team, however I decided to focus my attention on golf when I was 15 and it has led me to so many memorable experiences. Aside from golf, I love to read, go shopping and walk my dog.
My first tournament of the year, and first as a professional, was the Lalla Meryem Cup in Morocco. Aside from Q-school, this was the first competitive round of golf I had played since the end of my college career so I was really looking forward to it and it didn’t disappoint – I had a great time! I had worked hard in the gym (something I absolutely hate) and hard on my game on the off-season so was pleased to see some of the improvements in Agadir. As you can probably imagine I was nervous on the first day but had a really solid start which helped me to settle down, and after a lengthy weather delay ended the first 36 holes with a score of -5. This meant that I was in the final group for the 3rd round which was a great experience and I completed another steady day with a level par round. Unfortunately I struggled on the final day and finished the tournament at level par which was a little disappointing; however overall there are a lot of positives to be taken from the week. My golfing highlight of the week would have to be the fact that I holed two bunker shots, during round 2 and round 3! This isn’t something that I do very often so it was fairly exciting. I couldn’t see the first one go in, but the second landed straight in the hole; much to the amazement of my local caddy for the week. His knowledge of English was fairly limited, as was my French, but I think this was one point where we both understood each other when he was waving his arms in the air!
Thanks for reading my first blog and please follow me on Twitter (@Ellie_Givens) while I get ready for my next event, the LET Access Series tournament in Dinard, France!
Ellie
