Life changed with golf success

Press, 27 January 1988, Page 30

Life changed with golf success

Just how much life has changed for Britain’s new international queen of golf Laura Davies was amply shown to millions of television viewers just before Christmas.

Laura, aged 20, was seen sharing the fun of a light-hearted video longdriving competition with Nick Faldo and lan Woosnam plus boxing star Frank Bruno, motor racing champion Nigel Mansell and athletics ace Steve Cram, on the 8.8. C. television sports review of the year show., "It is the sort of thing I would have run a mile from just a couple of years ago,” admitted Laura, who in her amateur days used to make sure of finishing second to avoid the winner’s speech.

Davies has had to adjust quickly to the public spotlight after making an immediate impact in her first three years on the European women’s professional tour and then

rocketing to world-wide fame by becoming the first British woman ever to win the coveted U.S. Open title at Plainfield, New Jersey, last July. That feat persuaded the American women stars to waive their own rules and exempt Davies from having to play in the qualifying school for this year’s U.S. tour.

Davies plans to play 18 tournaments in the United States this year, including the defence of her U.S. open title at Baltimore in July.

After playing the first 10 U.S. events from the end of this month, she will return to the new cottage she has bought right next door to her mother’s home in the Surrey village of Ottershaw, just outside London. A brief fortnight’s rest will be followed by a trip to Japan, where she plans to play three or four events this year. Davies still intends, however, to play at least a

dozen tournaments in Europe, where she won the Order of Merit twice and finished runner-up last year. It’s a jet-set lifestyle far removed from the way she had to live in her days as an amateur, when she took jobs as a petrol pump attendant, supermarket checkout girl and betting shop assistant to

subsidise her love for golf.

That love affair with golf began at the age of 13 after watching her brother Tony play. She got her first set of clubs for her fourteenth birthday, and soon won her first tournament at her. local West Byfleet club, playing off 26 handicap.

She earned selection for the junior European team and English Women, but the highlight of her amateur career came in 1984 when she played for Great Britain in the Curtis Cup on Muirfield’s famous Scottish links and claimed a memorable victory against America’s most experienced star, Anne Sander.

Davies turned professional the following season and made an immediate and stunning impact on the European tour, winning the Order of Merit title with $58,600 season’s winnings, to become the first rookie

(first year) professional ever to win the coveted crown.

If anyone thought she was a one-season wonder, they were soon shown she was here to stay. Davies retained her Order of Merit crown in remarkable style in 1986, winning four titles, including the Ladies British Open at Royal Birkdale.

But all that was overshadowed by her remarkable U.S. Open triumph, when she defied all the odds to seal a super two shot victory in an 18 hole play off with vastly more experienced rivals Ayako Okamoto, of Japan, and the United States veteran, Joanne earner.

Now 1988 is opening up new challenges for Laura who says “It will be like starting all over again. The American tour is the toughest in the world but I feel I am still playing well and if I can keep a bit of luck I feel I can do well.”