Leading Welsh women’s golfer Becky Brewerton hopes to kick-start her season with a strong finish at the Deutsche Bank Ladies Swiss Open this week.
The €525,000 event, starting on Thursday at Golf Gerre Losone in southern Switzerland, is the third biggest on the Ladies European Tour schedule and marks the start of the lead up to the summer’s major events.
Abergele-bred Brewerton is currently ranked 16th on the LET’s Henderson Money List and she hopes to convert her consistent results into her first win of the season.
“This week is pretty important. This is the biggest event of the season so far and I’ve kind of ear marked this one as one in my mind where I want to start to see my game come together,” the two-time tournament winner said.
“This is one I always look forward to. It’s one of our best tournaments. If you take away the Evian Masters and the British Open, the majors if you like, this is probably the biggest and best event we’ve got. It’s always great: a great location, great course and run very well so it’s always a week to look forward to.
“Definitely Switzerland is one that I look forward to the most. I really like the course and I always think it should suit me so I’m hoping to do well. I think it’s about time I kick started my season because I’ve been pretty steady without doing anything special so it’s a good time to get going,” she said.
The Solheim Cup star has recorded two top-ten finishes from seven starts in 2010, including a season-best tie for fourth at the Turkish Airlines Ladies Open.
She needs a win to qualify for the Evian Masters presented by Societe Generale, where she led after each of the first three rounds last year, having earned her place with a six-stroke win at the Open de Espana Femenino.
“I’ve got Switzerland, Portugal and the US Open, but they are the only ones that are left so hopefully I won’t leave it until the very last minute again like I did last year,” she said.
“It almost gets to the point sometimes where it’s a bit like the Spanish last year where I knew I had to get into Evian and The Solheim Cup team. You’ve just got to say, ‘forget everything else, you’ve just got to perform.’ Sometimes it is a case of being hard on yourself and no excuses.
“No matter if you’re not putting well, you’ve just got to pull your finger out and go out and play and show what you can do. It’s a bit of a frustrating season so far: pretty steady but I almost wish at times I was one of those players that was a bit more up and down because there are some people that miss loads of cuts but then go and win one and I’ve always been a bit more consistent with more top-tens. Obviously I’d like to get more wins in there so it’s about time to start.”
The Deutsche Bank Ladies Swiss Open, which is a carbon neutral tournament, will see a field of 126 competitors play four rounds for a first prize of €78,750. The Peter Harradine designed par-72 course, which opened in the autumn of 2001, is hosting the tournament for the fifth successive year. The picturesque course, which sits in a valley at the foothills of the Swiss Alps, has received heavy rain fall over the last few days and was closed early on Tuesday morning but opened for practise at 10.30am.
