So here goes......after being on The Ladies European Tour for 12 years this is my first ever blog. The world we are living in right now is forcing us all to try new things and complete those tasks we have been meaning to do for a number of years. This has led me to taking up road running (because gyms are closed), fishing, jig saw puzzles, building my website and now completing my first blog.
2020 was looking so promising for The Ladies European Tour with a record breaking year ahead.
~18 million total prizefund for 2020.
~ 24 tournaments including 15 in Europe
~ 7 new events and 7 more with purses of more than 500,000
~ Biggest ever full field prize fund outside the majors, $1,000,000 in Saudi Arabia.
~ 1.5 million mixed event with The European Tour in Sweden.
~ $1.1 million event to be announced
~ New “Race to Costa de Sol” which will provide the biggest ever bonus pool for LET players.
It’s April 1st and I’m sat indoors in Australia writing this having only played 2 events this season not knowing if our next event will be in 1 month, 3 months, 6 moths or even next year.
Its heart breaking for the LET players because this was a new decade, a new LET and every player was so excited for the start of the season because the outlined schedule was looking to give players a true opportunity of making money not just keeping their head‘s above water.
What happened!?
CO-VID19............
The world has stopped, this virus has shut down London, New York, crippled Italy, Spain and many more nations.
Thousands of people have lost their lives to this virus, millions of people have lost theirs jobs and no one knows when this will all be over.
This is a scary time for everyone, how do we focus on the future when we dont know when that will start. I mean, what do we do? How do we keep motivated, keep training or practicing with no end goal or even start date.
As a professional athlete our entire lives are based upon planning for the next event, setting goals, improving and then competing. Its hard to start that process not knowing when the next event will be.
What I do know is that we ALL have to listen to the governments, take the advice of the health professionals and wash our hands, keep our distance and only go out for the essentials.
This is uncharted territory for every PM, every government, every health professional and all we can do is trust the professionals. Even though all us claim to be an expert when the news is on, the majority of us have no idea!!
This virus has really taught me that health has to be everyone’s priority because without it the entire world can shut down no matter how much money or talent one person may have the world can just STOP....
So for now, Im going to continue with running my ass off, complete my online course, hit the odd golf ball when I can and most importantly #STAYSAFE
We have to keep going, stay some what focused on the future and most of all keep smiling!
During your lockdown / isolation please get in touch and let me know if you’d like any advice on home practice, would like me to talk about actual life on tour or anything else.
Lydia :-)