Golfer Sarah-Ève Rhéaume could have enjoyed her final months of NCAA eligibility. However, she chose to make the leap to pro earlier than expected. After two straight wins, she has no regrets about her decision.
When reached by La Presse on the phone, Rhéaume was enjoying a period of rest and training in Florida, accompanied by her parents.
There, she was able to take full advantage of her two wins at Club Morongo in Beaumont, California on the Cactus Tour.
“We celebrated a bit after the tournament, but I had an overnight flight, so it wasn’t very long,” she said.
These two victories are in addition to her two triumphs from last summer, the Glencoe Invitational and the Ororo PGA Women’s Championship of Canada. At 22, the player of the Royal Quebec club, in the Capitale-Nationale region, already has four professional titles to her credit.
“At least now I can leave with the check,” she jokes.
She is referring here to the limitations placed on NCAA college athletes. Circuit which she decided to leave in favor of the professional circuit, although she was still eligible to return to Furman University in South Carolina, where she earned a business degree. She only has one class left before she can also earn a degree in economics.
With the way she’s been doing since and with the performances over the past few weeks, she knows she “really made the right decision and it was really the right choice.” “I’m glad I made the transition. »
With her two wins in California, she earned green fees for the next Epson Tour, the last tour before reaching the LPGA. Luckily, the tournament will take place at Club Morongo, on the ground where she won her first tournament recently. “It gives me good motivation. I was going to have access to it later in the season, but to start right away, hope to make some money and get close to the LPGA, it gives my season a good boost. »
Rhéaume, along with Brigitte Thibault and Céleste Dao, is part of a new generation of Quebec golfers who shone at university and are now trying to make a name for themselves among the professionals.
This cuvée gives hope, because the fleur-de-lys is very little represented on the LPGA circuit and even less on the PGA Tour.
Moreover, the three players already have a great bond, as Rhéaume points out.
Women’s golf is experiencing strong growth overall. The best players in the world are more and more put forward, especially on television. Big companies also make the best female golfers their headliners.
For example, earlier this year, TaylorMade teamed up with Nelly Korda and Brooke Henderson, arguably the two hottest female golfers of their generation.
“I dare to hope it’s going in the right direction. It definitely helps to see TaylorMade signing girls like Brooke and Nelly, especially since they’ve always had the big players on the guys’ side like Rory [McIlroy], Tiger [Woods] and Scottie Scheffler. Having two girls like that is big. Hoping that companies sign more and more girls. »
If the future of golf is feminine, that of Sarah-Ève Rhéaume is promising. The next challenge will be to go through the different stages to the best women’s tour in the world, because her ultimate goal is “to have [her] card to play full time in the LPGA”.
