16-year-old dominates Ladies European Tour event in Spain to win by 7 shots

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[PHOTO: Tristan Jones]

Anna Huang secured Ladies European Tour status last December, turned professional and her family moved from her native Vancouver to the warmer climate in Florida. Nine months later, the 16-year-old is a winner on the Ladies European Tour, going wire-to-wire at the La Sella Open to win by seven shots.

At 16 years, 10 months and 22 days, Huang is the youngest winner on the LET this year. She shot 64-66-69-69 for a 20-under-par total, topping France’s Nastasia Nadaud at La Sella Resort in Alicante, Spain. Australia’s Maddison Hinson-Tolchard finished third, a shot further adrift of Nadaud.

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“Honestly, I’m really shocked right now. I can’t believe I just won,” Huang said. “It’s really crazy. I was really focused on the present and the moment, so the scores weren’t really a distraction to me. I was really focused on hitting each shot to what I could do.

“Being in the final group showed me that I had to stick with the same game plan and not play too conservatively because what I was doing the past few days was working really well, so I kept that up.”

This marked Huang’s third top-10 finish this season. She moved from 50th to 22nd in the tour’s Order of Merit.

With such a large lead, Huang just needed to make sure she didn’t do anything crazy on the final day while in the last group. She birdied holes three and nine to calmly make the turn in two-under. In the last six holes she made three birdies and two bogeys, including a final birdie on the last hole to sign for 69 and the easy win.

Nadaud birdied her first two holes of the day but then made three bogeys to shoot 73.

“It’s super-special to have my dad on the bag. He has caddied for me ever since I started playing golf and it’s super-special,” said Huang, who was introduced to the game by her parents when she was 4. Her two biggest idols are Nelly Korda and Lydia Ko.

“Being able to win this at 16 is so insane,” she continued. “I never believed this would ever happen, but I’m so proud of myself. I love when people send me text messages, I’m really excited to reply to all of them.

“At the beginning of the season, I didn’t even have a full card, so to win is absolutely insane.”