The organisers of the Deutsche Bank Ladies’ Swiss Open have demonstrated their talent for putting together a first-rate starting line-up on many occasions. Most recently, they enabled Anna Nordqvist in May 2009 to make her debut as a proette and fully fledged member of the Ladies European Tour at the 4th Deutsche Bank Ladies’ Swiss Open thanks to a wildcard entry. The Swede is now among the crème de la crème of international ladies’ golf.

At the LPGA Tour Championship at the end of November in Houston, Texas, the former college talent (Nordqvist played for the Arizona State University team for two years, coming first or second in ten of her 24 amateur appearances) won her second ever major event on the LPGA Tour – which she had played her way onto with a first-rate score card at the Qualifying School in December 2008.

At the award ceremony, the 22-year-old Swede proudly said: ‘There were so many top players in the starting line-up; the pressure was immense but I did it, and can now look back on a dream first season on the LPGA Tour.’ Thanks to the prize money of 225,000 dollars, Nordqvist also secured her position at the top of ladies’ golf (rank 6), a position to which she shot following her surprise victory at the McDonald’s LPGA Championship, one of four major events on the LPGA, the previous June. At the end of the year, Nordqvist was awarded the Ryder Cup Wales Rookie of the Year Award 2009 for these outstanding achievements.

Despite her success on the LPGA Tour, the friendly Nordic woman will continue to take part in the LET. ‘Whenever the dates of the major tournaments in the USA allow, I will play on the LET,’ said Nordqvist. ‘It’s my home tour, and I would like to continue helping it to develop as it has done in the past few years.’ The Swede’s fans in Europe, particularly in Switzerland, will be glad to hear that. Nordqvist is scheduled to appear at the DBLSO once again in June 2010.