Nicole Broch Estrup from Denmark has been mixing playing on the LET with playing on the LPGA this summer.
The Åland 100 Ladies Open by Alandsbanken will be her seventh LET start of the year as she looks to build confidence and win for the first time since the 2015 Helsingborg Open.
A tie for second in the Tipsport Czech Ladies Open in June was the highlight of her year so far and she says that she has a little bit of a seven-year itch.
“Actually, my husband, Kasper, won an ecco tour event in Finland a long time ago and he said maybe we can do an Estrup double,” she revealed on the eve of the tournament.
“I’m feeling good. Things are heading in the right direction for me. The last couple of weeks have been kind of rough mentally. I missed the cut in Canada last week on the LPGA but before that I finished 31st in Northern Ireland, which was a good progression.
“It’s been a while since I have won and I really want to get back into that winners circle. I came close in the Czech Republic so I feel like I have it in me. It’s just about seeing if I can kind of set myself free and not get in my own way mentally.”
Developed “anxiety of golf”
“Lately, I’ve hated it more than loving it. It’s been a struggle, even in Northern Ireland. When I’m over the ball, I get afraid of hitting it right and then I get afraid of hitting it left. Then I’m like, where do I hit it? It’s those thoughts that creep in that I’m dealing with. I’m aware of it and the last couple of weeks have been tough but also reminded me that I’m not there yet and I still have a lot of work to do. Hopefully I can set myself a little bit more free this week and still have a good result.”
Like most of the players, Broch Estrup had an unusual journey to Åland, but it was even longer as she had just returned from the CP Women’s Open in Ottawa.
“We flew back from Canada Saturday night, got home on Sunday and started to drive up from Copenhagen on Monday afternoon. It’s a nine hour drive and then a 2.5 hour ferry to Mariehamn. It’s a long journey but earlier this year we drove to Italy and Belgium. It’s nice not to be on a plane and go through all that security stuff,” she said.
Along with the 2020 Race to Costa del Sol winner Emily Kristine Pedersen and Nanna Koerstz Madsen, who are both Solheim Cup players, there are now three Danish players on the LPGA and she says, “Being a little country, that’s huge. We have no PGA Tour players but a few on the DP World Tour.
“We were lucky that we were a group of five or six girls who were pushing each other. I guess it takes a bit of luck to get this far as well, depending on who you practise with and compete with, so we’ve been lucky to grow up in that environment.
“I’m still part of the national team and we have the practise camps and Emily and Nanna attend those too. I’ve been part of that programme for way too long, but it’s really nice for me to be able to give back to some of the younger players coming up, like Smilla Soenderby who’s a rookie. When I first started, it was Iben Tinning from Denmark who was playing well.”
Broch Estrup will tee off at 14:32 on Thursday, in the company of Lina Boqvist from Sweden and Linda Osala of Finland, as part of a Nordic three-ball.
