Lily May Humphreys has spent the first part of 2023 playing on the Sunshine Ladies Tour in the hope to build some confidence and performance back into her game.
The 20-year-old completed her rookie season in 2022, having won the LET Access Series Order of Merit in 2021, but did not perform how she would have liked.
The English player ended up 95th Race to Costa del Sol with one top-10 result, a T8 finish at the Big Green Egg Open.
However, on the Sunshine Ladies Tour in 2023, Humphreys has not finished outside of the top 10 in the first four events and she is taking the lessons she learnt in her rookie year forward.
“It’s been really good,” she said. “I wanted to play on the Sunshine Ladies Tour for a bit of warm away from home in England and just to try and get my game to where I want it to be after last season and get some confidence.
“My game was lacking in performance and my confidence was quite low. I’m still getting quite comfortable being in contention because it’s been a while playing well, so I’m still a bit nervy. If I’m playing well, I’m used to it, but I’m just trying to keep playing how I am.
“It helps that I know a lot more of the courses this year on the LET. Last year I knew two of them and they’re the two that I had pretty much had the best results on.
“It’s also doing time management at the events, I found that I played too many 18 holes and practiced a lot. I was mentally and physically fatigued and it was more my time management.
“Especially if you look at a lot of the girls who have been on Tour and in the States, they have been pros for years and years and you see what they do and think maybe I’m doing too much.”
This week’s Joburg Ladies Open and next week’s Investec SA Women’s Open are both co-sanctioned events between the LET and the Sunshine Ladies Tour.
And now Humphreys sits in a tie for second place at the halfway stage of the Joburg Ladies Open after producing back-to-back rounds of 70 (-3).
Speaking about her second round, she explained: “It was a bit more adventurous than yesterday! I started very well on the front nine, I played very solidly and didn’t really do anything wrong. I took all the opportunities I could.
“On 10, where I made a double, it was pretty much some nerves and nearly everything went wrong on that one hole. I followed up with two birdies to come back and then I made another mistake, but apart from those two holes I pretty much played really solidly and didn’t do too much wrong.”
For the past two days, Humphreys has also had an eagle on her scorecard, managing to make them both on the eighth hole at Modderfontein Golf Club.
While with two rounds of the tournament remaining, the LETAS winner is hoping she can continue her good form.
She added: “Both of my eagles were on the same hole, I must like the eighth! I hit driver up the right both times. In round one, I hit a 3-wood – a three-quarter one – to about eight foot and holed it.
“Round two had a much tougher pin which was tucked on the left, a little small portion, I hit my 3-iron to a similar distance maybe a bit nearer and holed that as well. Before I hit my putt, I stood there and thought this could be cool to get two eagles in a row here.
“I’m just trying to stick to the same game plan, keep playing good golf and keep the nerves steady and see what happens really. Trying to play my own ball game and my own strategy and see what happens.”
Follow all the action on @LETGolf on Instagram and Twitter and Ladies European Tour on Facebook and YouTube – #RaiseOurGame #JoburgLadiesOpen.
