NO TIME TO WASTE

After victory in her first LET tournament as a professional just before lockdown, Englishwoman Alice Hewson can’t wait to get back out competing again

- Nick Bonfield

Alice Hewson’s win at the South African Ladies Open could be one of the most significant victories of 2020, but it’s entirely plausible that you missed it happening. The day after the cancellation of the PGA Tour’s Players Championship because of the coronavirus – a decision that helped drive home the magnitude of the situation – Hewson completed a one-stroke victory at Westlake Golf Club. It was her maiden win on the circuit and it came in her first event as a Ladies European Tour member – no other Englishwoman has achieved that feat.

The 22-year-old from Hemel Hempstead only turned pro in September 2019, and it’s been a series of success stories since then. At the end of last year, she earned a Symetra Tour card via the LPGA Tour's Qualifying Series and in January, she became a fully-fledged member of the LET courtesy of a fifth-place finish at Q-School. Before that, she’d breached the top 20 in the World Amateur Golf Rankings and enjoyed a fruitful collegiate career at Clemson University in South Carolina.

Hewson is clearly someone who enjoys writing her name into the history books. At Clemson, she won the first two events she played in, and last year she became the first Englishwomen to play competitively at the home of The Masters in the Augusta National Women’s Amateur.

“I absolutely loved my time in the States – I wouldn’t trade it for anything,” she says. “I was a one-time All-American and a four-time All-ACC player [the conference she competed in]. In 2016 and 2017, I was also a part of England Golf’s European Team Championships side, which we won both years, and I won the European Amateur last summer.”

Making the step up