They look the same, have the same accent and play with a similarly low handicap. Sisters Kim and Morgane Metraux, two of the top golfers in Switzerland, will even attend the same university from August when they start a golf scholarship at Florida State in the USA.
They are playing this week in the Association Suisse de Golf Ladies Open 2014 at Golfclub Gams-Werdenberg on the Ladies European Tour Access Series (LETAS), taking place from Friday to Sunday, and ultimately one day would love to play as professionals on the Ladies European Tour circuit.
For now though, they will tee up in their home tournament to see how they fare against an international field of 119 golfers from 25 different countries, including 22 Swiss competitors.
Both sisters grew up playing at Lausanne Golf Club, four hours from Gams in the French speaking part of Switzerland. They picked up the game when Kim was 12 and Morgane was 10. Although their Italian mother would have preferred them to pursue careers as pianists, they both chose golf and six years later they are playing off handicaps of +2 and +2.8.
“We came to golf pretty late because our parents didn’t play a lot. We played once a week at junior training and when I was 14 we started to play a bit more and enter competitions. We liked it so we began to practice more and more. Now we’re here!” Kim says.
Their respective finishes in the Swiss Girls’ Championship helped the girls finish as the No. 1 (Morgane) and No. 2 (Kim) ranked players in the final Swiss amateur rankings in 2013. Kim, who speaks four languages fluently, has been a member of the Swiss National team since 2012 and has twice represented Switzerland at the European Girls Team Championships (2012 and 2013). She finished in second place at the 2012 Swiss Junior Championship (she lost the title after a five-hole playoff) and earned a third place finish at the 2013 Belgian International Amateur with a 3 under par score of 285. She finished as a finalist at the 2012 Swiss Match Play Championship.
With her third place finish at the Belgian International Amateur, 2013 ranked as Kim’s best year of competitive golf. She won the Crédit Suisse Junior Tour Final, finished in a tie for fourth place in the qualification round for the European Girls Team Championship, finished in a tie for sixth at the Austrian International Amateur, in eighth place at the European Ladies Club Championship and earned a top 10 finish at the International Brabants Open.
Morgane, who says that she speaks three and a half languages, has also been a member of the Swiss National team since 2012. She represented Switzerland at the British Junior Open in 2012, at the European Girls’ Team Championship and at the 2013 European Young Masters (U 16 European Championship). She was a member of the Swiss regional team in 2011 and 2012.
The 17-year-old also blossomed in 2013 as she won the qualification tournament for the Crédit Suisse Junior Tour, finished second at the Austrian International Amateur with a 6 under par score of 66 in the final round, finished second at the Sir Henry Cooper Trophy/Junior Master’s Tournament in England and placed second at the Swiss Junior Championship – an event in which she lost the title in a playoff.
She finished third at the 2013 European Young Masters (Under 16 European Championship), placed fourth at the 2013 Belgian Amateur and advanced to the quarterfinals of the 2013 British Girls’ Championship.
The Metraux sisters have a vast amount of international experience and their long-term goal is to turn professional, but they are in no hurry and when it comes to their goals for the Association Suisse de Golf Ladies Open, Morgane says: “We don’t really know this course so our goal is to play under par and then we’ll see.”
Kim, who will study Business at FSU, adds: “It’s the same. A top ten or 15 would be good but I don’t really know much about the strength of the field so I’ll know better after one round.”
The sisters share the same green/blue eyes, curly brown hair and discrete charisma and are clearly happy to share a lifetime’s ambition. However, when it comes to their personalities, they insist there are clear differences.
Kim says: “I am more accepting and too kind with people and not saying the things I think,” while Morgane says: “I’m more direct and if I don’t like something I will say so.”
