The Parisian Agathe Laisné (-16) claimed her first career victory on the Ladies European Tour this Sunday. She won the Ford Women’s New South Wales Open at the Wollongong Golf Club in Australia, unlocking a new level in her budding career.
She is 26 years old and has always been one of the great promises of French golf, although the results of recent years stubbornly kept her in the background. Perhaps the biggest obstacle in her career has been her enormous talent and the high expectations that led her to try to leap over hurdles four at a time.
Laisné played her first Evian Championship at just 15 years old thanks to an invitation. Those are expectations, and the rest is nonsense. At 17, she played the Evian for the second time, and just a year later, she had already competed in the British Open. The latter, by the way, was not handed to her; she qualified after winning the European Amateur Championship. That is to say, she hadn’t even started university in Texas and had already played three Majors.
Her fourth tournament was also a major, for which she qualified through the preliminaries. It was the 2020 US Open. She was not yet a professional and had already played four Majors. Additionally, in 2020, she won two titles on the LETAS as an amateur, one of them in Spain, at the Santander Tour de Lauro. She was rocketing forward.
Expectations were never small with Laisné. In fact, after her time in Texas and becoming the third woman in Longhorns history to win the conference title, she earned her LPGA Tour card on her first attempt at Q-School, shortly after turning professional. She continued to grow rapidly. More expectations.
It was there that she hit a wall. The LPGA was a struggle for her. She played 18 tournaments and missed 15 cuts in 2022. She moved down to the Epson Tour and, far from sinking, she rediscovered her best golf. She achieved a victory and returned to the elite quickly. However, another setback in the major league. In 2024, she played 18 tournaments and missed 16 cuts. A blow. This is her great wall, more psychological than anything else.
In 2025, on the Epson, she secured two third places, interestingly in the first and last tournaments of the year. However, it was insufficient to achieve promotion. It was then that she made a career decision. Steps are climbed one at a time. She decided to seek another path to achieve her LPGA Tour dream. She did not attend the American Q-School but opted for the European route. She went to Morocco to earn her playing rights on the LET and succeeded by finishing ninth in the Final. Now, two months after that, she has achieved her first victory on the Ladies European Tour. It is another path, longer, but surely the most solid and successful.
No one handed Laisné the victory in Australia. Mainly because she had to play in the worst conditions on Thursday, and yet, she managed to claim the win on Sunday. She did it with a round of 65 strokes, with five birdies, an eagle, and a bogey, showing enormous determination in the final stretch. The one who played best and kept her coolest head won.
She also had some help from the amateur Korean Soomin Oh (-15), another exceptional player in the making. Very tall and long, she had emerged as the favourite to win with an impressive run of eight birdies in eleven holes, from the 4th to the 14th. Her victory seemed inevitable. It was a great story. She is only 17 years old and has a dazzling future. She is the eleventh best amateur golfer in the world, has already been in the top 10, and will compete in her second Augusta National Women’s Amateur in April. The future is hers.
Her present, however, can wait. At least, her first LET victory. Two bogeys on holes 16 and 18, the latter a par 5, opened the door wide for Laisné. One door always opens when another closes. Oh is left without the victory and the great story, although proving that we are witnessing one of the great promises of women’s golf. We will see if she ends up leaping over steps four at a time or if her path is more linear. Both methods are perfectly valid. Just ask Laisné.
As for the Spanish players, Harang Lee (-5) was the best classified in this strange and rainy week in Australia. She finished with a final round of 7 strokes, in 33rd place. After starting with a birdie, her round went awry with three bogeys on the first nine, but she responded brilliantly with three more birdies on the back nine. A good week to kick off the season for the Cantabrian. Meanwhile, Marta Sanz (+6) finished at the bottom of the leaderboard after a poor weekend.
The pair of Australians who led the standings after the third round, Hannah Reeves and Kelsey Bennett, had a tough Sunday (72 and 71 strokes, respectively) and soon ran out of chances for victory. They have their whole future ahead of them. Just ask Laisné.
