Her name is Shannon Tan, she is 19 years old, was born in Singapore and has won the second tournament of the Ladies European Tour she has ever competed in, the first as a professional. It was the Magical Kenya Ladies Open, the inaugural event of the 2024 European circuit season.
She and her coach from the University of Texas Tech were not wrong when they met in December and made the decision to leave the amateur world and delve into professionalism. It was not something that was in their plans. Simply, she went to the Ladies European Tour School to gain experience and what she took was the card after finishing eighth in the final. It was then that the conversation took place and she took the step forward. Two months later she already has her first victory in her pocket.
Trailblazer. 🏆
The winning moment for Shannon Tan as the teenage rookie becomes Singapore’s first LET winner! 🇸🇬#RaiseOurGame | #MKLO2024 pic.twitter.com/4NVSgZHJkY
— Ladies European Tour (@LETgolf) February 11, 2024
It’s early, the season has just started, but it’s inevitable to think that Atthaya Thitikul, Linn Grant and Trichat Cheenglab already have a successor. They are the last three champions of the Ladies European Tour merit order and, at the same time, they won the rookie of the year award. Tan enters by her own right into the club of arriving and kissing the saint. The other three are already competing in the LPGA Tour, the first two with notable success, and the third has just arrived. They can already start making room for Shannon on the other side of the pond.
It may seem crazy to run so much with such a young girl, but what she has done years ago endorses her. This is not a one-day flower or the result of a coincidence. Her amateur career has been brilliant. She finished fourth in the first NCAA Final she competed in, added six top 10s in total and qualified to play the Augusta National Women’s Amateur. Last year, still an amateur, she won a professional tournament in her country belonging to the China circuit.
Let’s say that Tan had been warning and today at Vipingo Ridge she has confirmed it. She has won with authority, with a final round of 70 strokes for a total result of -12. She has resolved it quickly. She made three birdies in the first five holes and made it very clear where the tournament was going. She ended up winning by four strokes over Italian Alessandra Fanali, who came out tied with her and signed 74 strokes, and eight over third place. A show of strength from the first Singaporean player in history to have the Ladies European Tour card. Don’t forget her name.
In that third place has finished Ana Peláez (-4). The best Spanish. Magnificent debut of the golfer from Malaga in 2024. She handed in this Sunday a card of 71 strokes, with a bogey, a birdie and an eagle, the fourth she signs this week, this time putting from outside. The best of her game today has been the approach and the putt. She has recovered four of the five greens she has missed, in some cases with very meritorious shots like on hole 10.
Peláez, who finished fifth in the LET merit order last year, picks it up right where she left it. She was already fighting for victory in the Spanish Open in Las Brisas and now she shows again that her game is very well oiled for a year that is going to be complicated, as she has to alternate the LPGA Tour, those tournaments where she can enter with her School category, and the LET. Let’s not forget that in 2024 we also have the Solheim Cup. Ana has already presented her candidacy.
As for the rest of the Spanish, solid performance by María Hernández (-1). The golfer from Navarra has finished in sixteenth place with a final round of 72 strokes. She leaves Kenya without having played a single day over par and with the notable record of having made only nine bogeys on a course, the Baobab course, and conditions, wind every day, quite difficult.
In addition, Nuria Iturrioz and Luna Sobrón, both with +1 and final rounds of 71 and 72 strokes, have finished in the top 25. Pity the final double bogey of Luna that made her lose several positions. The rest of the Spanish who made the cut, Teresa Toscano, Marta Sanz, Marta Martín, Fátima Fernández Cano and Paz Marfá, finished in the back of the classification with rounds over par.
