The Western Cape Wonder: Lee-Anne Pace
If you were looking for this year’s phenomenal success story, well look no further. Hailing from Mossel Bay, Western Cape, South Africa let us introduce you to Europe’s No.1 women golfer for 2010: Lee-Anne Pace.
Pace developed her interest in golf because of her father who she describes as “quite a good golfer”. She had an athletic childhood, playing hockey and tennis. She played her first golf tournament at the age of 18, after which
her father asked her seriously to consider a future in the sport.
Pace joined the Murray State University in the United States where she began a successful amateur career. Besides a number of wins at South African national tournaments, she won the 2003 Ohio Valley Conference Championship. She
was also named the 2003 Ohio Valley Conference Player of the Year as well as the 2003 Murray State Player of the Year.
Lee-Anne continued her amateur career after switching from Murray State to the University of Tulsa. She won the WAC Championship and the University of Tulsa Player of the Year award in 2005. During her time in college, she represented
South Africa six times, twice in World Amateur Championships in Puerto Rico and Malaysia.
She turned professional in 2005 and started playing on the second tier Duramed Futures Tour in 2006. She recorded three top ten finishes, including two in the top five, eventually finishing 30th on the tour’s money list
and 110th on the Order of Merit.
She qualified for the LPGA in 2007, but her best result of the season was a tie for the 21st place. She lost her card by the end of the year, but she qualified for the Ladies European Tour in 2008. Her best finish that
year was a tie for 4th place at the SAS Ladies Masters. Her earnings this year were € 34,343, moving her up to 64th on the Order of Merit list.
In 2009, Pace recorded 4 top ten finishes and 2 top five finishes at the Madrid Ladies Masters and Randstad Open de France Dames, finishing 21st on the Henderson Money List (previously the Order of Merit) with € 77,494.
So far, come 2010, Pace had not won a single tournament. She finally broke her duck with her win at the Deutsche Bank Ladies Swiss Open. She was trailing by two shots going into the last day, but made several birdies to clinch
the lead and in effect, the victory. The earnings from the win propelled her to 2nd place on the money list.
After this, she was unstoppable. From this victory, she moved on to win the Wales Ladies Golf Championship of Europe at the Conwy Golf Club. She finished 6 under par, 3 strokes clear of her nearest competition. This was followed
by another victory at the Finnair Masters, Finland’s most prestigious golf event. She played superbly all weekend, finishing 14 under par, winning by a margin of 3 strokes.
Continuing her dominance, Pace gained two back-to-back victories in China at the Sanya Ladies Open and the Suzhou Taihu Ladies Open. At this point, her main competitor was English veteran, Laura Davies. Like Pace, Davies had also
won five tournaments in the calendar year. She needed to finish in the top two in the end of season tournament, the Omega Dubai Ladies Masters, to take the lead from Pace. However, she finished tied for 19th place allowing Lee-Anne Pace to become
the first South African to be crowned Europe’s No.1 women golfer.
For her achievement, Pace was presented with a salver and a bonus of € 20,000, taking her total earnings for the year to €359,517. Perhaps an even better reward was a message of congratulations sent by Ernie Els, a player she has
always admired and expressed desire to play with.
"It gives me great pleasure to acknowledge your achievements this year and to send big congratulations from South Africa on winning the LET's Henderson Money List and Player of the Year titles. To be acclaimed by your peers
is the ultimate compliment and you have thoroughly deserved it."
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