England’s Eleanor Givens secured her maiden Ladies European Tour (LET) title at the 2026 VP Bank Swiss Ladies Open coming from four shots back to record a one-stroke victory.
Givens was able to go home after her win, as it was an off-week on the LET, and celebrate with her family and friends.
The English star was surprised by the number of messages she and her dad Ralph received since her victory in Switzerland.
“It’s amazing, that’s exactly what you want is to have the off-week and go home, celebrate with friends and family, and just enjoy that moment,” she said. “For months, I had a trip planned to London with my best friend to go and have afternoon tea with her mum and my goddaughter as well.
“It couldn’t have worked out better with timing. I spent a lot of time with friends and family at home. I showed my cow trophy to everybody and had a good time. It’s been nice. I have really felt the love from everybody. My dad is a club pro, and I grew up at the golf club. His phone has been going mad too. He has retired now but everyone has been messaging him and messaging me.
“I grew up at that golf club, so there’s been a lot of people watching my journey, more so than I probably realised. This last week, they’ve all come out and said well done and we were watching. The amount of people has been really touching. It’s sunk in a little bit more. It’s still great and I’m still really excited about it, even though it’s been more than a week. I want to come here and play well but I’m still in that bubble really. I’ve always wanted to win, so let’s try and keep going.”
Givens lost her full playing rights on the LET in 2025 having finished 91st in the LET Order of Merit at the end of the season.
The VP Bank Swiss Ladies Open was the 37-year-old’s ninth appearance of the season and she had made five cuts prior to Switzerland.
Having triumphed at Golfpark Holzhausern, Givens is more confident than before especially as she currently doesn’t have any coaches.
She explained: “It’s definitely built the confidence. After having a really rough year last year and losing my card, confidence isn’t high and I don’t have a coach at the moment. I’ve been without a coach since September last year, I’ve been doing my own thing.
“I’ve had to have a lot of trust in myself to do that. I have been really pleased to come out this year and play better. That shows a lot of my determination more so. I don’t look at my stats. I know my game and what works well and what doesn’t. I’ve been really fortunate to work with some great coaches in the past, so using a lot of what they taught me.
“If you ask any player out here, we’ve all got little issues that we have worked on for years and years. I know what my faults are and working on that and just going back to playing a bit like a kid and just playing and feeling it. I have very much a feel-based game anyway, so going with that and trusting it, which probably isn’t what people are taught now, but it works for me.”
Givens tees it up in the 2026 KPMG Women’s Irish Open this week held on the Palmer South Course at The K Club.
It is the 21st tournament of the LET season which will see a field of 132 players representing 34 nationalities including 16 Irish players.
The LET winner got a taste of the venue in the practice rounds and has enjoyed being in Ireland especially as one of her friends won at the K Club on the DP World Tour.
She continued:“I’m not a golf nerd, but one of my good friends won here on the DP World Tour – Kenneth Ferrie – on the other course. He won here, so I’ve heard of it and it’s always been somewhere I’m a bit more aware of because of that.
“It’s nice to play at venues like this. Luckily, we get looked after well in Ireland and we get nice courses and this is one of the good ones. I really enjoyed it. I didn’t really know what to expect. It’s in very good condition after all the weather, it’s nice to have a green golf course. We’ve had a lot of good conditions, but this is your traditional green golf course in Ireland.”
Despite having not played much golf on her week off, Givens feels prepared for the tournament as she tees it up as a winner for the first time.
The English player also had time to celebrate with her friends from the LET with a dinner on Tuesday.
She added: “I have proven that I can win, but that’s not it. I want to come here and do well. I haven’t played a lot of golf the past week. In fact, I played some golf on Sunday and that was about it. I’m not a huge practicer anyway. I’ve done my work over these few days and feel as prepared as I would have done.
“It’s a bit of both, a bit more pressure, but a lot more freedom. I didn’t have a Tour card, and I was fighting to keep that, but now I do. In that sense, there’s way less pressure, but from the point of view of wanting to do well at the tournament, it’s the same.
“A group of us of all my close friends on Tour, we all went out last night for dinner to celebrate. There was 14 of us, so players from Tour and any family they have this week.”
Givens will tee it up in the first round of the KPMG Women’s Irish Open on Thursday August 27 at 12:30pm (local time) alongside Finland’s Noora Komulainen and England’s Cara Gainer.
Follow all the action throughout the week on our socials – @LETgolf on Instagram, TikTok and X, and Ladies European Tour on YouTube and Facebook – #KPMGWIO.
