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| Gustafson won the 2007 New Star Money List |
The LET is proud of its players, who are the LET’s greatest ambassadors and have undoubtedly contributed the most to the Tour’s successes over the last 30 years.
England’s Laura Davies was its first superstar, winning the US Open in 1987. Davies has since won three further major championships and secured 68 titles worldwide over two decades. She has also been the leading LET money winner seven times, including most recently in 2006, when she won more than €471,000 in Europe.
Sweden’s Liselotte Neumann followed Davies as US Open Champion in 1988, inspiring several younger European players to turn professional, including Sweden’s Annika Sorenstam, arguably the all-time greatest female player. Sorenstam topped the LPGA Tour’s money list in 1995, 1997, 1998 and every year from 2001 to 2005, opening many doors for women’s professional golf in Europe.
Davies, Neumann and Sorenstam’s names are synonymous with The Solheim Cup, and the LET has staged five of the 10 editions of the event over the last 17 years since the inaugural tournament in 1990. Most recently, it staged The 2007 Solheim Cup at Halmstad Golf Club in Sweden which witnessed record crowds of more than 100,000 despite bad weather.
The support of elite women’s golf amply demonstrates its increasing appeal to members of the public. With five new tournaments in 2008, including in Ireland, Turkey, Spain, Sweden and Germany, many more celebrations are guaranteed in the near and distant future.
At the recent Dubai Ladies Masters, there were celebrations with Sweden’s Sophie Gustafson named as the 2007 New Star Money List winner. Louise Stahle, another Swede, lifted the Ryder Cup Wales Rookie of the Year Award in association with the Bill Johnson Trophy and Germany’s Bettina Hauert was named as the Players’ Player of the Year.
