Ice hockey and golf sit at opposite ends of the sporting spectrum.
One is played in wide, open spaces, the other inside cold arenas of concrete and steel. One moves at relentless speed, the other unfolds with patience and precision. One is built on collective effort, the other carried alone.
France’s Margot Rouquette, who has just completed her rookie season on the LET Access Series, has reached elite levels in both, an extraordinary feat.
In ice hockey, Rouquette enjoyed a highly successful career, representing France at U18 World Championships and winning both silver and gold medals. She was also part of the first French team to reach the Elite World Championship level.
But how does one transition from that world to the fairways of professional golf? This is the Margot Rouquette story.
Golf initially seemed the logical sport for Rouquette to take up at the age of six, with both her parents playing the game. Yet it was her uncle, a passionate hockey fan, who convinced the family to put a tiny Margot on the ice two years earlier, at just four years old.
Speaking about her introduction to hockey, Rouquette said:
“I was four years old and they just decided, okay, let’s put her on the ice and see if that could be fun.
“They were thinking they were going to have the best time of their life just watching me, like, trying to skate, but I ended up liking it. So, I stuck with it from there and then I just kept playing my whole life.”
While the two sports may appear incompatible, Rouquette explains why she sees it differently.
“It was very complimentary to balance both sports growing up because golf is a summer sport and hockey is a winter sport.
“My coaches in golf always told me to just keep playing hockey as long as you can because the physical abilities that that’s going to give you is very important for golf and not everybody has the chance to do that.”
At the age of 15, Rouquette made the difficult decision to pursue ice hockey seriously. That choice saw her leave home for a boarding school in Canada for two years, followed by a move to the United States to continue her hockey career.
Moving more than 3,500 miles away from home at such a young age might seem daunting, but Rouquette embraced the challenge.
“It was fun because I just wanted to be away and be an adult. At boarding school, it was just me and a bunch of other international students that were leaving for the same things as me. We had so much fun.
“When I hit, like, probably 19 or 20, that’s when I realised I missed my family, so it got tough at one point. But I still wanted to pursue my dreams in sports over being with my family.
“I’d much rather be in an uncomfortable situation and pursue my dreams than just being at home and maybe regretting something.”
Like all good things, Rouquette’s ice hockey career eventually came to an end, a decision that was not taken lightly.
“Hockey came to an end because there were very few French girls living professionally from hockey. The girls in the team now that you see competing in the winter olympics, one’s a doctor.
“I feel like being in that national team shouldn’t be that hard. I think it should be a full-time job, basically, and I just felt more opportunities in golf. But I also suffered numerous injuries in hockey, and I was kind of tired of putting my body through all of that.
“I suffered two shoulder surgeries, one knee surgery, and I recently had a surgery, so I feel like sports have been hard on my body already by my young age of 24.”
Rouquette decided to dust off the golf clubs and returned to competitive golf in the United States, enrolling at Sacred Heart University in May 2024.
During her college career, she recorded six individual wins, including a conference individual title in her senior year, and helped secure three team titles in the NEC. She was also named NEC Rookie of the Year in 2021, NEC Player of the Year, and NEC Scholar-Athlete of the Year in 2024.
Reflecting on how her ice hockey background has helped her golf, Rouquette said:
“I was more physical before. I think I have dropped 10 pounds or more since I stopped playing hockey. I was a much bigger person, and I think at that time I generated a lot of power in my swing. But for my small size now, I still hit far compared to some other girls my build, and I think the strength in my legs came from hockey.”
While golf is an individual sport, Rouquette believes the team environment of hockey has helped her on Tour, particularly when it comes to building connections and travelling alongside fellow players.
“Life on the road becomes easy and it’s almost a positive thing for me because I’m with people. I feel like that brings me to the best of my abilities because I’m with people — they are helping me or kind of my team for a week — and that’s something that really, really hits on me and makes me better.”
However, coming from such a different sporting background has not been without its challenges for the LETAS rookie.
“It’s much more difficult being in an individual sport. When I’m on the ice, I make a mistake, nobody sees it.
“Hockey is the fastest team sport in the world. Things happen quickly, you don’t have time to think, you don’t have time to react. It’s almost all about instincts.
“When you make a mistake, everybody forgets. In golf, it’s so different, because you have so much time to think in between your shot about what’s going to happen and what just happened.
“So, it’s a lot of reflection and strategy instead of instinct.”
Rouquette also admitted that transitioning her identity from ice hockey player to professional golfer came with its own struggles.
“It was hard as I was a nobody on the golf scene. I knew I was a decent player but didn’t have the same pathway as the other French girls.
“I just had zero confidence, and I thought, do I really belong here? I was the underdog. I came from the US. I had a background as a hockey player, I was hot-headed, and then suddenly, I get into golf and everybody’s like, where is she coming from?”
Playing multiple sports as a junior is something Rouquette now believes is undervalued.
“I think increasingly now in golf, but in any sports, they’re asking kids to stop playing their other sport from an early age to focus on that one sport. First, I don’t think that’s a good thing, obviously, because I just think that it burns out the athletes quicker, and it doesn’t develop as many abilities that they would have got if they played another sport.”
Rouquette is set to play the full 2026 season on the LET Access Series as she continues her pursuit of LET status.
Reflecting on last season, she said:
“I had so much fun, but I know I can do so much more this year. I had some great individual rounds, but it’s about piecing three good ones together.
“Lucie Andre was a great mentor on Tour. I would say she always talked to me, she always supported me, and I think that’s helpful having some friends like that on Tour.”
However, Rouquette was forced to cut her season short after opting for cyst removal surgery on a wrist injury she had battled for several years.
“It’s always hard seeing the other players going to tournaments, having fun and playing some great courses.
“So, when you’re at home just getting surgery, it’s not fun. But it needed to be done because that wrist was hurtful for five years or more.
I was tired of practising a little bit and then getting to tournaments, having pain and not being able to do what I wanted to get done.”
Rouquette returned to competitive golf just a month before Q-School, advancing through pre-qualifying but falling short of LET status at the final stage.
With an eye on 2026, Rouquette points to a return to Denmark and a new stop in Germany as highlights of the LET Access Series schedule.
Befitting her unconventional journey, the 24-year-old also takes an unusual approach to goal setting and life as a professional golfer.
“I haven’t really said any goals for myself, just the goal to get some LET status but I still achieve that with a fun approach.
“I don’t want to be out there travelling and regretting anything. If I can do something fun during the season, for instance if I’m in Germany and there is something fun to do near the venue then I will do it.
“I just want to enjoy that time, because I don’t know how long it’s going to last. I have no sponsors, limited funds, so life as a professional golfer is not guaranteed.”
One thing is certain, Margot Rouquette is among the Tour’s most colourful characters and 2026 could yet prove that there is more than one pathway to success in professional golf.
The LET Access Series season gets underway on 12 April in Fez, a new destination for the Tour, where 108 players will begin their campaign to clinch LET status for 2027.
For more information on the LET Access Series, visit letaccess.com and follow @LETAccess on Facebook, Instagram and X – #Access2LET.
