Excited about this season in Europe

IT’S going to a special year on the Ladies European Tour in more ways than one. Firstly, this is the best schedule in the LET’s history. Secondly, I’ve every intention of trying to play on the LPGA Tour next season so, if all goes to plan, this is likely to be my last full season in Europe for the foreseeable future.

Therefore in those respects I’m very much relishing the start of this season and aim to make my mark on such a strong schedule. If you’d said to the players three years ago that the list of tournaments would be as it is in 2008 we would have been delighted – and more than a little surprised.

At that stage it was difficult to say where the tour was going next. We had seen Ian Randell leave the organisation in slightly odd fashion and soon after his successor departed in a similar way. To many outside the tour – and some inside in fact! – the role of chief executive appeared something of a poisoned chalice.

I really wasn’t sure what way we were going to go at that point and, as a young player who had yet to secure a solid financial footing, it was more than a little worrying. It’s hard enough for the more established players when things like 
that happen but when you’re just starting out, it is really tough.

You’re trying to win some prize money from a very small pot and trying to secure sponsors at a time when the tour is hardly high profile. So to be where we are now is a tremendous achievement for all concerned but especially Alex Armas, executive director since 2005.

The players really respect the job Alex has done. She seems very sensible, realistic and organised yet ambitious for the tour and passionate about what it can achieve. Alex is clearly very good with sponsors and tournament venues and as a result we will spread the LET  word far and wide in 2008.

The prize money is excellent too and any young player joining the tour this year has no excuses: the money is there to make a living from. You need to play well of course and gone are the days when over-par totals were making the cut week in, week out. But if you do play well you will earn some decent money at the end of the week. That is a terrific situation to be in considering where we were not so long ago.

So, you might be thinking, why would I consider decamping to America after this season?  Well, the answer is not complicated, it’s simply to have the chance to tackle the world’s best players and see how my game stands up against them.
I’ll write more about that closer to the time – and of course there are absolutely no guarantees I’ll get a card. For now I want to concentrate on this season and play some good golf. I won once in 2007 and that was a fantastic feeling – now I want more.

I really feel like anything other than two or three wins this season will be a disappointment. It’s quite ambitious, but that’s what I’m looking to do. Obviously that would mean I would be close to the top of the Order of Money and that is my ultimate aim for this year I suppose.

Nothing would give me greater pleasure in 2007 than to top the Money List. I would then try to go for the LPGA Tour knowing I’d played exceptionally well on my home tour. It’s easy to write in a column but a little more difficult to actually achieve. This time last year I was pretty frank about where I was and how disappointed I was not to have made the breakthroughs I had expected.

Thankfully I made up time pretty well last year and now I want to kick on. Hopefully by listing my aims in the same column in 2008 will mean I achieve those targets again! For now, I’m practising hard and even as I write this I’m planning my trip to America for the Kraft Nabisco – and I’ll hopefully have happy tales to tell of that experience next month...