Ana Dawson: teeing up the best start

It’s great to be a couple of months into the golf season and having already played a set of events. My first pro event was in Kenya, where I managed to make the cut which was great as it was my first event.

Then it was onto a double header in South Africa a few weeks later. It was a late call and I had to fly out the day after I found out I got in. It was my first-time playing altitude and definitely wasn't something I was aware of, the ball was just flying a lot further than it does at home and I struggled to get the hang of it. Overall, despite not playing my best, I thought I played quite well. It was good to see signs that my off-season short game practice somewhat paying off.

A good way into round two and I was in it competing against experienced tour players. The second week in South Africa was disappointing, things weren’t going my way and to top it off I had COVID, food poisoning, moved AirBnB and got the bad luck of the draw, I ended up narrowly missing the cut by 1 shot. 

It was just one of those weeks but I’ve definitely learned from it.

I've got a good two month break now before the next Ladies European Tour event in May, which will be in Evian, France.

I recently played in two events just to keep up the competitive momentum, first in San Sebastián, Spain and then another in Roehampton. It was also good for me to get used to travelling more, test my event preparation and do a bit of warm weather practice. In the Spain event, I was one off the lead going into the final round and playing against people I didn’t really know. It was a bit disappointing to finish fifth and lose by four shots but it was definitely a great experience and made me more determined to win at Roehampton. 

Again, I didn’t really have time to rest as I was back on the golf course at Roehampton the following morning after returning to London. I attempted to squeeze in a practice round but by the fourth hole, it started to absolutely chuck it down with rain, so I was unable to see the whole course. We weren’t even sure if the event was going to go ahead the next day due to the poor weather and the fact that all the other courses in the area were closed. It was quite tricky because I was thinking that we were only going to play 18 holes because of the emails we were receiving on the day. 

In the first round, I shot five under which I was quite happy about. I thought it would be enough to win but we were told we had to go back out in the afternoon, which I hadn’t anticipated. The tiredness from all the travelling hit me in the second round but I still started off really strong with a two under three. I dropped a couple of shots but ended up five under on the back of nine. The previous tournament record was nine under, so I had a little goal to try and get to ten which I managed with a birdie on the last hole. So overall, I won the Ladies Gold Cup in Roehampton by nine and set a new tournament record. 

It was nice to play alongside some of the girls I knew from the LET, it makes it a bit easier to compete when you know people. I’m happy with how these events went and I think it has put me in good stead for the run of Rose Ladies Series, which are one-day events across the UK, over the next month. 

Then I’ll be ready to go again on the LET and hopefully rack up more good performances.