subject: Pace is SA's first European No 1 [print this page] Pace is SA's first European No 1 Pace is SA's first European No 1
Lee-Anne Pace has became the first South African to be crowned as Europe's No.1 women golfer.
This after she held off English veteran Laura Davies In the season-closing Omega Dubai Ladie's Masters on Sunday to win the Ladies European Tour's Henderson Money List, formerly known as the order of Callaway Diablo Edge Irons .
The 29-year-old from Mossel Bay, held off a spirited challenge from England's Laura Davies after both players earned five victories each during the Ladies European Tour just ended
Pace was presented with a salver and a bonus of 20,000 by Richard Wilson, Marketing Director from the title sponsor, Henderson Global Investors, at an awards ceremony.
She also received a ten year exemption to the Ladies European Tour after topping the list with season's earnings of 339,517.77 from 25 events.
Her closest challenger, Davies earned 311,573.48 from 17 tournaments to finish second, 27,944 behind Pace on the ranking.
Pace set herself apart from her peers in 2010 with her five tournament victories in five months, from June to October.
Five years after turning professional, she finally broke her Titleist 910 D3 Driver, winning her first LET event at the Deutsche Bank Ladies Swiss Open.
Once she'd tasted victory, though, she was almost unstoppable and won the S4C Wales Ladies Championship of Europe, the Finnair Masters, the Sanya Ladies Open and the Suzhou Taihu Ladies Open in China.
Few can match Pace's steady rise to fame. She was 110th on the rankings in her rookie season in 2007 and returned to Qualifying School where she placed 25th. The following year's improvement was massive and she finished 64th on the Henderson Money List. She made another huge step in 2009 finishing 21st with four top-10 finishes and she just keepsCallaway RAZR X Ironsgetting better.
She also won the 2010 Players' Player of the Year Award as voted for by her peers and she said: "It's absolutely amazing. I am very happy. I've got so many messages and I think Callaway Lady's X-22 Irons is overloading so it's great.
