Laura Funfstuck already has a putting mat at home. The professional golfer also has a rented tea mat with her for her sporting equipment. And the network that the 25-year-old from Langen has ordered has now also arrived at her parents’ house. After the Ladies European Tour (LET) paused due to the corona pandemic and closed the golf courses in Germany, she had to improvise in her parents’ house. Or “get creative”, as Laura Funfstuck puts it: “I have to build up an opportunity to hit balls.”
In bad weather in the living room at home. The ceiling is high enough there and only one table has to be pushed aside. From a few meters away from the network, the Hessin, whose home club is the Neuhof Golf Club, strikes in an exceptional setting. True to her current motto in times of general standstill: “I have to keep going.” On Friday, in bright sunshine, she practiced with her equipment outside in the garden of the neighbors.
Although the golf season had only just begun, Laura Funfstuck has experienced a lot on her travels through the international golf world. In her one and a half months in Australia, she drove “past some burned trees left and right of the road”. At that time, the huge bush fires were largely contained, and the German was mostly in the region around Brisbane. Rather, the floods were a problem there, the heavy rain meant that it could not always be played. However, each time it was foreseeable when it would go on. And that is the big difference to the current situation. “Maybe in June, probably more in July,” gaming operations at LET could be resumed, Laura Funfstuck suspects. “It will be a new start to the season.” Now it is “as if the plug had been pulled”.
After the competition in Saudi Arabia was canceled, South Africa was the last tournament station for the long-time international. With the divided 18th place, she came very close to her good, old form. In the past season, her “first full year at LET”, was completed by Laura Funfstuck in ninth place overall. A total of six places in the top ten contributed to their total prize money of almost 120,000 euros. Only one victory – she was close in Spain – was missing, says Laura Funfstuck in retrospect. “There was a lot of good things here, everything has improved a bit for me.”
Accordingly, a success at LET this year is the “big goal” of the Langenerin. From a purely mathematical perspective, your chances of success increase, because the LET has been upgraded: with more tournaments; Competitions in Belgium, Switzerland, and Holland have been added to the calendar. In addition, the earning potential has increased significantly. There is no longer a tournament with prize money below € 200,000. At one or the other event, a total of over a million euros were awarded. “As soon as the level rises, the costs rise. The better you perform, the better you have to earn, ”says Laura Funfstuck.
The involuntary break from the tournament has led to the fact that her work is currently “more office and fitness-oriented”. Laura Funfstuck is longing for the day to regain momentum in the competition. “It’s my job to fly after the sun.”
