Chiara Tamburlini is the first Swiss golfer to win the annual Ladies European Tour ranking. Since August 2023, she has moved up over 1000 positions in the world rankings to the top 70.
19.12.2024, 05:00
19.12.2024, 06:50
SDA
Last Friday, Chiara Tamburlini was presented with her fourth award in the year that will soon be coming to an end. The members of Swiss Golf voted her "Player of the Year" by a clear majority. This was to be expected.
Thanks to her sensational first season on the Ladies European Tour, she has already won the annual ranking. She was also voted "Rookie of the Year" and "Player of the Year" by her professional colleagues. "It was a surreal season," the St. Gallen native looks back.
"My expectations weren't particularly high at the start of the year. I wanted to secure my tour card and was extremely nervous before the first big event in Kenya because I didn't know what to expect there," Tamburlini recalls of the start of the season in February. There, she "actually just wanted to get into the prize money", but then went home with a shared third place.
Things did not go according to plan in Saudi Arabia and Morocco after that. Tamburlini had to pack her bags early and flew back to Switzerland without having earned a single franc. She did not let this discourage her; among other things, she gained new self-confidence with two sixth places in the USA and Australia.
Quick first victories on two tours
She achieved her first victory in just her eighth tournament on the Ladies European Tour. The "neo-proette" won the Joburg Ladies Open with a seven-stroke lead. This earned her a winner's cheque of 45,000 euros, while at the same time she made it into the top 200 professionals in the world rankings for the first time. This was followed in the fall by two more victories in France and Taiwan, thanks to which Tamburlini secured the title in the annual rankings early on. She earned a good 440,000 euros in prize money from a total of 24 tournaments.
Tamburlini only switched camps in August 2023 after successfully completing a degree in finance. She also won her first tournament as a pro on the smaller LETAS Tour.
16 months ago, Tamburlini was ranked number 1133 in the world rankings; she is currently already among the top 70 in the world. In view of the significantly higher prize money on the American LPGA Tour, this position is all the more remarkable.
Thanks to her three victories and seven other top-ten finishes, Tamburlini has overtaken Morgane Métraux in the world rankings, for example. The Lausanne native usually plays on the LPGA. Together, the two Swiss women provided another highlight of the season. At the Jabra Ladies Open in France, there was a Swiss double victory for the first time in history - Métraux won ahead of Tamburlini.
Disappointment at the end
Once again, Tamburlini suffered a minor setback with three missed cuts in a row. "Sometimes I put myself under pressure because I wanted to catch up, even though I didn't exactly have my best week. I had to learn to cope with a mediocre week," said the player from eastern Switzerland shortly after her 25th birthday at the beginning of December.
This also applies to the end of her almost perfect first regular season as a proette. After five rounds at the LPGA Qualifying School, Tamburlini was just three strokes short of one of the coveted starting places on the American Tour. "That was obviously disappointing. Especially because I produced two double stroke losses within one round in the last round. I really don't know when that last happened. Nevertheless, it was a sensational season. Now I'm looking forward to the vacations and the new season on the Ladies European Tour," says the player from Eastern Switzerland, looking ahead.
