Beth Allen Earns Well Deserved LPGA Tour Card

American Beth Allen has been lighting up the Ladies European Tour this season and now looks set to dazzle back home after securing her LPGA Tour card over the weekend.

With two impressive wins this season and currently leading the Order of Merit (she is set to become the first American to hold the honour in its 38-year history) Allen is finally reaping the benefits of years of hard work.

The 35-year-old began her professional golf career on the LPGA Tour in 2005 but after struggling for a number of seasons Allen decided it was time to try her luck on the Ladies European Tour. She has been living in Scotland and playing on the LET since 2009. 

While she found the pace of the LET less stressful than the American Tour, Allen still battled to find her winning game. In 2011 an incident in her personal life changed all of that when the then 29 year old donated one of kidneys to her older brother Dan.

“It’s sort of put life into perspective,” Allen explained to espnW.com this past summer. “Dan is so grateful it’s hard to describe.  Golf used to be all I had in my early 20s, well not quite all, but if I had a bad day you felt worthless.  Now I don’t feel like that anymore. It’s helped me build relationships. It’s lightened my outlook.”

A lightened outlook plus an incredible caddie change helped accelerate the Californian’s golf game to new heights. In June 2015 it was announced that the Swedish professional golfer Sophie Gustafson would be leaving the Tour as a player and taking up residence on Allen’s bag. The pairing has proved to be a wild success for the American.

In July 2015 she finally earned her first career title at the ISPS Ladies European Masters. With Gustafson by her side Allen came from 5-behind the overnight leader to finish with six birdies and a final round 67.

“Honestly, I feel like I just showed up and I didn’t have a lot of expectations because I finished second here in 2012 and haven’t made a cut since,” said Allen at the time. “I thought, well, I’ll do my best and enjoy it and today I got off to a really good start and thought maybe this can happen and Sophie kept me grounded. I ended up getting it done, so I’m really happy!”

Her win in 2015 proved to be just the beginning of Allen’s rise to the LET top!  In 2016 the American has racked up eight top ten finishes including wins at the French Open and the inaugural Fatima Bint Mubarak Ladies Open. She might not have a sponsor but Allen is definitely starting to get herself noticed and is making enough money to properly enjoy her job.

This past weekend Allen reached another important milestone in her career as she finished 6th at the LPGA Qualifying Tournament, earning the American her LPGA card and giving her the ultimate freedom when it comes to the future of her career.

“I want options, I’m not planning on leaving the LET,” explained Allen this weekend. “I just want to play all year, and I want to fill in some weeks and see what happens.  Who knows what will happen and who knows how many I will play or what but I am definitely going to play on the LET.”

Allen is now in Dubai preparing for the LET’s season-ending Omega Dubai Ladies Masters. Where she’s hoping for a hat-trick finale to a pretty great year!

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