SETTING THE PACE

Photos: Sunshine Tour By: Michael Sherman

South Africa’s record-breaker Lee-Anne Pace is ready to transfer her local success to the United States.

AS the shadows grew at Steenberg Golf Club in Cape Town last month, Lee-Anne Pace holed a one-foot putt on the par-5 18th which signified an incredible 11th Ladies European Tour (LET) victory.

Not only did it mean the 41-year-old had won a record fifth SA Women’s Open, it also earned Pace a spot in the US Women’s Open later this year. It was a fitting end to a tournament which took six playoff holes to decide the winner – in which Pace outlasted Argentine Magdalena Simmermacher.

Pace burst onto the scene in 2010, with five victories on the LET. Those wins saw her end the season atop the LET order of merit as she won the Player of the Year award.

It would be three years until she won again on the LET, with Pace claiming three victories. While she added a win in the SA Open in 2014, it would be another seven years before she stepped onto the winners’ podium again on the LET.

That seven-year drought was broken at the 2021 SA Women’s Open, and of course she defended that title once more earlier this month.

It means Pace is not done yet, not by a long shot. Despite her pedigree on the LET, she is yet to shine in the 36 LPGA majors in which she has competed. In fact, her best finish is a tie for sixth at the 2015 Evian Championship.

Her results in the majors belie her incredible talent and potential, and it would be a travesty if SA’s best player since Sally Little does not claim at least one major title before her career is over.

Little, now aged 70, remains the only SA player to have won a women’s major with her victories at the PGA Championship in 1980 and the CP Women’s Open in 1988. Though Little won 15 times on the LPGA Tour, it can be argued that Pace is a better player with her 23 professional victories.

Pace has one LPGA victory to her name – the 2014 Blue Bay LPGA – to go with her numerous victories on the LET. Pace also has 14 Sunshine Ladies Tour victories, since the tour began in 2014.

It surely will only be a matter of time before her dominance in SA is translated to major success in the United States.

Lee-Anne Pace during the trophy presentation of the 2021 Investec South African Women’s Open at Westlake Golf Club in Cape Town, South Africa.

South Africa’s record-breaker Lee-Anne Pace is ready to transfer her local success to the United States.