The Final Stage of the LET Q-School concluded on Saturday, December 20, in Morocco at the Al Maaden and Royal Golf courses. Among the Czech players, Lucie Váchová came closest to breaking into the top twenty new holders of LET cards. In the end, she fell just three strokes short of full membership, but secured approximately ten starts on the LET with Category 16 status.
A total of 155 players teed it up in Morocco in the battle for playing cards on Europe’s top women’s tour and job security for the coming year. Their goal was a top-20 finish (and ties), which granted access to the LET with Category 12 status. Finishes from 21st to 50th place (plus ties) were also rewarded, earning players a conditional status that guarantees participation in at least part of the LET season.
Four Czech professionals were part of the field. Current LET members Kristýna Napoleaová and Tereza Melecká qualified through their positions inside the top 135 of the LET Order of Merit this season. Lucie Váchová and Karolína Stará advanced to the Final Stage through the Pre-Qualifying tournaments.
Originally scheduled as a five-round event, the tournament was reduced to four rounds without a cut after the opening round on Tuesday was interrupted by heavy rain. Each player therefore played both courses, Al Maaden and Royal Golf, twice.
Playing one round fewer suited some players more than others, including Lucie Váchová, as noted by her boyfriend and caddie Ondřej Tomášek after the second round:
“I think it’s good for us that the tournament is four rounds long and fatigue doesn’t come into play. We’re happy about that. We’re playing on two courses – Royal Golf, which is a very old course from 1927. It’s completely forested, with really narrow tee shots and is very technically demanding. The greens are running at around ten feet. We compared it to Šilheřovice. Al Maaden is the complete opposite. It’s very long, but extremely wide off the tee. You can hit driver almost anywhere. It was originally set up at 6,100 metres, which is extremely long for the women. But because of the interruption in the first round, the officials shortened it and moved many tees forward. That’s why we said before today’s round that we would try to take full advantage of it and climb up the leaderboard.”
And Váchová indeed delivered a strong second round, finishing at five under par with a clean scorecard and five birdies. Combined with her opening round, she stood at four under par and tied for 24th after two rounds — a very promising halfway position, just one shot outside the crucial top twenty.
The other Czech players were further back at the halfway mark. Tereza Melecká, in 59th place, was four shots off the top twenty, while Kristýna Napoleaová and Karolína Stará were positioned in the second hundred. After the third round, Lucie Váchová remained the Czech Republic’s only serious contender, but a level-par round saw her drop 16 places into the mid-forties.
In Saturday’s decisive final round, Váchová steadily climbed the leaderboard shot by shot and reached a tie for 18th place for the first time after the 10th hole. A bogey on the 12th brought renewed pressure, and another bogey followed on the 15th. She managed to offset the two costly holes with a closing birdie on the 18th.
She eventually finished the tournament tied for 30th place with a total score of seven under par. The alternation between courses proved to be a key factor. While Váchová was unable to break par at Royal Golf, she played the 36 holes at Al Maaden in eight under par.
“Al Maaden suited me better — it was a longer, links-style course with faster greens. Royal Golf was more parkland-style with softer greens, where it was harder to score. Al Maaden was ultimately shortened a lot due to wind and weather, so I was hitting short irons into the greens. I generally had good iron play at this tournament, so I was usually able to get the ball within five metres, and some putts dropped as well,” the Czech player explained.
In the end, Lucie Váchová missed out on a full Ladies European Tour card by three strokes. However, she does not feel disappointed:
“Sure, you can probably find those three strokes in every round, because I was giving myself good chances and some putts just lipped out. But I didn’t expect this result at all and I’m very satisfied. If someone had told me at the start of the season that I would finish it with a status and a card on the Ladies European Tour, I would have laughed. Next year I’ll definitely combine LET and LETAS tournaments and we’ll see how it goes. I have around ten tournaments on the LET. It would be great if I could play in Evian, but I’ll be happy with every tournament and I’ll be gaining experience,” Váchová looks ahead to her upcoming season among Europe’s professional elite.
Tereza Melecká (tied 66th), Kristýna Napoleaová, and Karolína Stará (both tied 137th) finished outside the qualifying positions in Morocco.
Results of the Final Stage of the Ladies European Tour Q-School can be found here.
Author: Tomáš Přikryl /ČGF
Photo: Tristan Jones / LET