Patricia Sanz
Rising Spanish star Patricia Sanz turned professional in July last year and earned LET membership in category 7 through the LET Access Series (LETAS). She has now played in 11 LET events and is currently 4th on the Rookie of the Year Rankings. Find Patricia’s latest results and stats on the LET website at www.ladieseuropeantour.com
Tell us about your golf experiences since you joined the LET:
Well, it seems like it was yesterday that I joined the tour, and it has already been eight months. It all started in New Zealand in Christchurch at the beginning of the year. I was a bit nervous being a rookie and starting a new tour. It took me a couple of events to get a bit more comfortable, and I fell short a couple of shots in the first two events.
I was extremly lucky to be able to play in China, in the World Ladies Championship, at Mission Hills, and that was when I made my first cut. I got to play in the strongest field I have played so far, with names like Inbee Park and Suzann Pettersen. It was a great experience, I learnt a lot and I enjoyed every minute of it.
After that, things got a bit rocky again, we didn’t have many tournaments in a row, so it was hard to get into a rhythm. However, Turkey, was a breakthrough for me. Yes, I missed the cut, but I got to caddie for Florentyna Parker in the last round and that’s when I realised how much pressure I was putting on myself to play well. She played calm and had fun on the course and I was missing a bit of that, so I changed my mentality to play. Amsterdam wasn’t what I hoped for, the conditions beat me mentally, but after that I started having fun.
In Slovakia I had my best finish so far this season, making the top 15 and I really enjoyed the course, and I was lucky that my parents got to come and watch me play as well. Italy was fun; I didn’t play my best golf but still managed to make the cut. It’s hard to play every week at your best, so you have to take the okay weeks.
At the ISPS Handa Ladies European Masters held at the Buckinghamshire Golf Club, I loved the course, we had great weather and it was super fun, plus I shot six under the last round, so it was a good way of ending the tournament. Unfortunately, I didn’t qualify for the British Open, but the first year it’s a learning process, plus I needed a week off at home, that gave me a lot of strength for the last two weeks before the three week break. I made both cuts in Germany and Prague, and had the chance to keep learning and playing golf all around Europe.
How you have been preparing for this year?
I have been preparing with a lot of hours of practice, and also strenghthening my conditioning a little bit to be able to play for 5-6 weeks in a row.
How have you found the travelling?
I really enjoy travelling and I have also found that I quite enjoy organising the travel arrangements. Well, I guess all travel stories are funny after time, because when they happen you don’t really laugh that much. On the way from Italy to the British Open pre qualifier, Ellie Givens and I found lots of problems arriving at our destination. First, our flight was delayed an hour, just enough to make us miss our bus that was going to take us to Ellie’s car. We decided to take a taxi, however, and I found out about this recently, nothing in England works at night š so there was a 45 minute to an hour wait to grab a taxi.
So the next bus was an hour later as well, so we went to the bus stop and waited there, and the bus appeared, however it was going to another stop first, so we decided to sit and chat with the bus driver for an hour, (it was already 1.30am) and we finally made it to the car at 2.30am, and drove for an hour and a half, to find that our keys were behind a drain pipe in the hotel and our room was on the third floor without an elevator, of course, and we were both carrying luggage for 4-5 weeks. So it was a fun experience.
Is life on tour the way you imagined it would be?
I had the experience of playing LETAS last year, so I got a taste of a pro tour. This year is very similar regarding travelling, but the LET is a bigger tour, the golf level is much higher, but as a whole it is fun as well. At the beginning as a rookie its quite intimidating, but once you start getting comfortable it’s actually lots of fun.
What are your goals for this year?
Well it will be great to win a tournament, but as for smaller goals, I would like to finish in the top 50 on the money list and be rookie of the year, although Sally (Watson) has been kicking my butt š
Follow Patricia on Twitter @patisanz90
