Caroline Masson EXCLUSIVE: Gladback girl aiming to give Germany an appetite for golf

As a young child living in the German town of Gladbeck, when Caroline Masson was first taught how to swing a golf club she had only one role model to inspire her interest in the game.

It was not one of the big stars of the game who was thrilling crowds and banking a fortune playing on one of the world’s tours. It was her grandfather.

Yet by the age of 14 she was playing off a handicap of scratch and 12 years on from reaching that landmark she is now a member of Europe’s Solheim Cup team.

And the fact that the match against America will be staged in two weeks on her native German soil at the St Leon- Rot Club near Heidelberg is extra special.

For Masson not only wants to feel a repeat of the winning euphoria she experienced as part of the 2013 European side that thrashed its US rivals 18-10 in Colorado.

She also hopes an eye-catching performance will provide the inspiration for other young German girls to take up golf that she was denied as a youngster.

The country has of course produced two global Major-winning figures in Bernard Langer and more recently Martin Kaymer, but the game is still very much a minor sport in Germany.

Masson recalls: “As a young kid I very rarely got to see men’s golf on television and as for women’s tournaments they were never shown.

“Everywhere in the world there was an explosion of interest when Martin [Kaymer] holed the winning putt for Europe in the 2012 Ryder Cup but I am not sure there was such an explosion in Germany.

“Nobody there could really see what it meant, and it’s especially hard to explain when there’s little or no TV coverage back home.

“But I think if people just watched one minute of coverage from the 2013 Solheim Cup everyone would say ‘wow this is cool’ and would be really into it.

“It has been a huge goal for me to make the team the last two years and I have been waiting for the call to see what decision captain Carin Koch would make.

“When she told me I was a pick I was super happy and I can’t wait to tee it up in Germany in front of my friends and family.

“It’s going to be a huge event and I feel so happy and fortunate to be a part of it.”

Despite her quiet introduction to the game, by the time she was a teenager Masson was enjoying a hugely successful career in amateur golf.

At the age of just 17 she represented Germany in the 2006 Espirito Santo Trophy – the world amateur team championship – and in the same year she won the German Strokeplay title.

In all she was to win seven German national championships and the Spanish Ladies Amateur Open, and represented Europe in the 2005 and 2007 Junior Solheim Cups.

Her heavily-loaded trophy sideboard also earned her a golf scholarship at Oaklahoma State University, which she took up for one year before deciding to join golf’s professional ranks in 2009.

But where young German men like Kaymer and Marcel Siem were always able to seek Bernhard Langer’s advice when they first ventured out onto the European Tour, Masson was still struggling for guidance.

The only German woman with any status in European Ladies golf at the time was Martina Eberl, and while she did record four tour wins in her career, she just happened to retire the same year that Masson joined the tour ranks.

In five years of playing on both the LPGA and Ladies European Tour, Masson has so far only accumulated one victory at the 2012 South African Open.

But she did finish tied fifth in the 2011 Women’s British Open – her best performance in a Major to date – and made a considerable impression on her Solheim Cup debut.

Partnering the Swede, Caroline Hedwall, she produced two fourball victories and also picked up a half in a foursome pairing with Catriona Matthew.

 

And she hopes a season’s best performance next week at The Evian Trophy – the last Major of the year for the ladies – will lift her game ready for taking on the Americans again.

“Going to the Evian for a big tournament is a good opportunity to gain confidence for the Solheim,” she said. “And it would be cool to take some good form to St Leon-Rot. It’s a course I know well having won two tournaments there.

“Yes then we were off three or four different tee boxes, but I know I can play well. And I just hope we get good support.

“Germans love sport and I’m thinking if we could just explain to them about match play, about the contest between Europe and the US, and how there’s so much passion in the competition, then I think they would love it.

“But first of all they have to get there; they have to watch it and experience it. They don’t go to golf tournaments like they go to football games… and that’s the biggest problem.

“But the Solheim Cup has definitely got the potential to change that mindset.”

And from a nationalist point of view, Masson has another hope that the Solheim Cup can attract widespread interest.

Germany is currently among the six countries that have submitted bids to the men’s European Tour to host the Ryder Cup in 2022. Spain are the favourites since the course they have put forward – the PGA National Catalunya near Girona – has for several years hosted the men’s annual Tour School and has a wonderful stadium layout superb for spectator viewing.

But a successful staging of the Solheim Cup in front of big crowds could earn the Germans a few votes. Masson said: “I’m sure we are going to stage a great event and I just hope that the Ryder Cup people take note.  To have the Ryder Cup in Germany would be another big boost for golf here.”

*This article was published in TGP on 2 September 2015.

Tagged Caroline Masson, Solheim Cup, Solheim Cup 2015