Carin Koch column: Ladies European Tour Masters ‘a great event with some top performances’

Last week’s ISPS HANDA Ladies European Masters at Buckinghamshire Golf Club was a really great event to showcase the Ladies European Tour. The weather was perfect, even on Sunday, when the crowds left the beach to come and watch golf in ideal conditions!

It was nice to see Caroline Masson on top of the leader board because she’s had a bit of a struggle over the last couple of months, so it’s good for Germany and good for the Solheim Cup as well.

We had a little coffee and catch up together earlier in the week. Because she’s from Germany, the Solheim Cup is a huge event for her, so I just wanted to check she wasn’t putting too much pressure on herself. I’ve been there and I know it’s tough when you’re trying to prove what you can do.

I told her I know she’s a great player, and she did so well in Colorado, so just to enjoy the next couple of months and see it as an opportunity and be excited for it. She was confident. She said she’s been playing great and just not getting the rounds together, and it can be like that in golf sometimes.

It was also nice to see Charley Hull and most of the other players that are on my list playing well. We all know that one shot a round can make a huge difference, so it’s nice to see everyone is continuing to play well.

There is so much going on that, for me, it’s more about talking to the players to see how they’re doing. But I really enjoyed playing in the tournament.

It was a great learning experience for my 12-year-old son Simzon to be my caddie and see what I do. I played some awful golf, and I would have loved it if he had seen more of when I played my best golf. He was little then. I actually played my very best golf when I was pregnant with him and I’ve told him that. It’s good for him to get up there and see how it’s done.

As a mum I want to give him all the opportunities, and it was great that we had the chance to go to Wimbledon and watch the tennis on Saturday. It was really fun: a great experience for both of us and I want to go again! We watched Federer, the first set of Murray’s game and Jankovic, so we had a wonderful time.

We now have the US Women’s Open coming up, so I’ll have two of my vice-captains, Maria McBride and Annika Sorenstam, over in Philadelphia while I study the scores and statistics.

Talking of my vice-captains, I must add a congratulations to Sophie Gustafson on her first caddie win with Beth Allen.

Overall, it’s been encouraging to see the European players shooting low numbers and posting lots of birdies at Buckinghamshire Golf Club. It’s not long until I announce my four picks on August 25, so it’s getting very exciting now!

Follow me on Twitter! @Carin_Koch

*This article was originally published in TGP on 8 July 2015

Tagged Carin Koch, Ladies European Tour, Ladies European Tour Masters, Solheim Cup