Anna Nordqvist won the Big Green Egg Open, a tournament of the Ladies European Tour which took place on the course of the Rosendaelsche Golf Club (par 72), in Arnhem in the Netherlands. The Swede won with a total of 281 (72 70 67 72, -7) shots ahead of Austrian Sarah Schober, second with 282 (67 70 73 72, -6).
Virginia Elena Carta, the only Italian in the race, after a difficult start and a first lap closed in 80th place, managed to make a great comeback until she finished in 8th position with a score of 286 (76 71 70 69, -2).
Anna Nordqvist, results
For Anna Nordqvist this is the first seasonal title on the LET, which adds to a palmarès full of trophies (including three majors).
Thanks to this exploit, the 35-year-old Scandinavian cashed a check for € 37,500 on a total prize pool of 250,000. Women’s golf in Europe depopulated only some time after the creation of the LPGA in the United States of America.
In 1978 the Women’s Professional Golfers ‘Association (or simply WPGA) was founded, underlying the largest Professional Golfers’ Association operating in the UK. The following year a tour was set up with Carlsberg as main sponsor and comprising 12 tournaments (36 holes), including the Women’s British Open.
For his first two seasons the Tour’s fields were rated for 36 shots, then increased to 54; the prize pool also increased, going from the initial 80,000 pounds to 250,000 in 1981, at the cost, however, of the loss of important tournaments and sponsorships.
At the end of the 1981 season the collaboration with Carlsberg ended, and despite an initial optimism, the Ladies European Tour experienced a period of crisis that culminated in the cancellation of further stages. In the second half of the 1980s the circuit found itself with only 10 tournaments left and its future was questioned.
To overcome the crisis and its now poor visibility, in 1988 the main members of the management decided to create an independent body, the Women Professional Golfers’ European Tour Limited: the new entity then changed its headquarters, moving from The Belfry (shared with the PGA) at the Tytherington Club in Cheshire.
In 1998 the Tour took the name of European Ladies’ Professional Golf Association Limited and then Ladies European Tour Limited in July 2000. In 2008 the organ changed headquarters again, this time settling at Buckinghamshire Golf Club, near London.
In 2010 the Tour announced the creation of the LET Access Series (LETAS), its official development circuit. In January 2020 the Ladies European Tour entered into a joint venture with the LPGA Tour, with the aim of further growing women’s professional golf around the world: the Ladies European Golf Venture Limited became the central body of the board of directors and was flanked by representatives of other realities such as LPGA Tour, PGA European Tour and The R&A.
