SINGAPORE – After an excellent 2023, Singaporean golfer Shannon Tan is looking to take her career a step further by turning professional.
The 19-year-old had secured her card on the prestigious Ladies European Tour (LET) in December and will be taking part in her first two tournaments as a pro in Australia in the coming weeks.
She will first compete in the Jan 18-21 Webex Players Series Murray River in New South Wales, which will feature the likes of 2023 champion Sarah Jane Smith in the A$250,000 (S$222,000) event.
Tan will then head to Victoria for the A$840,000 Vic Open from Feb 1-4, where former world No. 1 Shin Ji-yai will defend her title.
Both are mixed-field events on the Challenger PGA Tour of Australasia, the main professional golf tour in Australia and New Zealand.
Tan said: “This is an exciting time for golf and I am looking forward to getting the season under way and testing myself on the professional circuit.
“My recent experiences as an amateur and college golfer have stood me in good stead and given me real confidence, and I am optimistic about the opportunities that 2024 will bring.
“It is the right time for me to take this next step, and I cannot wait to challenge myself at the pro level, against some of the world’s best over the course of the season.”
In December, the teenager became the first Singaporean to earn a card on the LET, after finishing tied-eighth on the final stage of the Lalla Aicha Q School in Morocco, granting her access to all events on the tour.
There will be 31 events across 20 countries in the 2024 LET season, which begins with the Magical Kenya Ladies Open in February. The total prize money this season is more than €34 million (S$49.6 million).
Some of the top women golfers, including 10-time Major winner Annika Sorenstam, have played on the LET.
The Swede began her career on the LET, winning its Player of the Year accolade in 1995 and 2002.
This is just the latest milestone for Tan, who has gone to great lengths to pursue her ambitions of playing on the LPGA Tour.
After completing her Secondary 1 studies at Methodist Girls’ School, she left for Australia to focus on golf.
In 2021, she got a full scholarship to play National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) Division 1 golf with Texas Tech University, chalking up impressive results in her freshman year.
In her maiden outing at the NCAA Division I golf regionals in 2023, she came in tied-fourth and claimed six top-10 finishes in the Big 12 Conference. It is a college athletic competition, headquartered in Irving, Texas, that has 14 full-member universities.
She also qualified for the 2022 Augusta National Women’s Amateur, one of the top competitions in the world for non-professionals.
That same year, she finished second at the Queen Sirikit Cup and was the low amateur on the Hana Financial Group Singapore Women’s Open on the Korean Ladies Professional Golf Association.
In July 2023, she became just the second Singaporean to win on the China Ladies Professional Golf Association Tour by claiming the Singapore Ladies Masters title at Laguna National Golf Resort Club.
