Babnik eschewed the US collegiate circuit to turn professional at age 16 in 2020 following a successful amateur career in which she won both the Girls’ Amateur Championship and Helen Holm Scottish Women’s Open, claimed individual medallist honours at the 2019 European Ladies Team Championship and represented Europe in the Junior Vagliano Trophy and Ping Junior Solheim Cup. It proved to be a solid decision when she promptly earned her LET playing privileges at Q-School. Since, she has gone on to claim her first tour title at the 2021 Jabra Ladies Open and, more recently, finished second behind Maja Stark at the Estrella Damm Ladies Open. She is currently third in the race for LET rookie-of-the-year honours behind Thailand’s Atthaya Thitikul and Stephanie Kyriacou of Australia.
Swedish women’s golf is blessed with fine crop of young women golfers at present and another of those is 22-year-old Grant who reached second place on the women’s World Amateur Golf Ranking before turning professional this summer. She started brightly by claiming successive second-place LET finishes at the Shaftö Open and the Creekhouse Ladies Open, before sealing her maiden pro victory last week at the Terre Blanche Ladies Open on the LET Access Series. Her long list of amateur titles includes the Helen Holm Scottish Women’s Open Championship and the Ladies British Open Amateur Stroke Play while this spring she claimed three consecutive individual titles on the US collegiate circuit representing Arizona State. She also played alongside Maja Stark in the winning Swedish teams in the 2019 and 2020 European Ladies Team Championships and partnered the same player to victory in the 2019 Sunningdale Foursomes.
Humphreys elected to turn professional in June rather than make a second appearance for Great Britain & Ireland in the Curtis Cup and she made an instantaneous impact by winning on her first start on the LET Access Series at the Golf Flanders LETAS Trophy. She since has secured her spot on next year’s LET with six further top-10 finishes including three second-place finishes in a row last month. Her amateur career was highlighted by wins in the Girls Amateur Championship, the English Women’s Amateur Championship, the Junior Orange Bowl International, the Helen Holm Scottish Women’s Open, the Annika Invitational Europe and the Irish and Welsh Ladies Open Stroke Play Championships. She also played on the same Ping Junior Solheim Cup team as Babnik in 2019.
Roussin-Bouchard topped the Women’s World Amateur Ranking for 34 weeks in 2020, so it was no surprise when the young woman from Provence hit the ground running after turning professional in August by winning the Ladies European Tour’s Didriksons Skaftö Open on her second start as a pro. She followed that up with a tie for third at the subsequent Lacoste Ladies Open de France. Roussin-Bouchard was a standout performer at the University of South Carolina, and also made her mark in Europe with victories in the Spanish, Portuguese and Italian stroke-play championships and St Rule Trophy at St Andrews. While still an amateur, she finished second in the 2019 Jabra Ladies Open on the LET, and claimed a share of 46th place on her debut in US Women’s Open in 2020.
Stark also turned professional in August. Like Roussin-Bouchard, she quickly got into her stride with a win on her second start as a pro at the PGA Championship by Trelleborgs Kommun on the LET Access Series. Greater things were to come for the Swede last month when she posted two LET victories in three starts by winning the Creekhouse Ladies Open and the Estrella Damm Ladies Open. Stark rose to a high of fourth place on the World Amateur Golf Ranking earlier this year as a result of a series of sparkling performances for Oklahoma State University. Her best finish in a major came in the US Women’s Open last December, where she tied for 13th place.
Lewine Mair