Second-year LET Member Alexandra Fösterling is all smiles ahead of her debut appearance in the Amundi Evian Championship.
Speaking at the Evian Resort Golf Club, the Rolex Rankings No.69, a four-time winner on the LET, said: “I’m very, very excited. The place is so nice and the views are amazing. I haven’t played the course yet but from what I’ve seen the course conditions are beautiful and I’m really excited.”
The 24-year-old from Berlin, Germany, added: “I’m trying to set my expectations really low because I tend to have higher expectations. I will set a couple of goals for myself and really have a fun week, enjoy the views, enjoy the course and go from there.”
“My manager is here, and he’s great, so I’m happy he’s coming and then the German coaches too, and my mum, so I think I have a great group here and I’m really happy that those people are here.”
Fösterling made a superb start to her professional career in 2023. She won the VP Bank Swiss Ladies Open and the Mallorca Ladies Open to finish eighth in the LET Order of Merit and runner-up in the Rookie of the Year standings. At the end of the year, she earned an LPGA Tour card at Q-School. In 2024, she won the Aramco Team Series Presented by PIF – Tampa and then the Amundi German Masters on home soil.
She has qualified to represent Germany in the Paris 2024 Olympic Games next month and is ranked fourth in the European Solheim Cup points standings, with a good chance to make her debut on the team at Robert Trent Jones Golf Club in Virginia in September.
“My game has been good. I’ve played a lot of golf, so last week I took a couple of days off, which was really nice. I just wanted to be ready to play Evian,” she said.
“I set myself a goal to win once last year and I won twice. That was already really overwhelming and then I won twice again in the beginning of this year. Everything feels so unreal and I would never have thought, if somebody told me, so soon, four times, I would have been like, no way. I would have never believed it but I’m really happy where I’m at and really proud of myself and hopefully more to come.”
As well as playing at Evian for the first time – the only Major in continental Europe – Fösterling is also excited for a return to France to play in the Olympic Games next month.
She added: “It means everything. It was always my dream when I was a little kid, to play in the Olympic Games. Back then, golf wasn’t an Olympic sport. Then, when golf became an Olympic sport, I was like, it would be the biggest dream ever to be a part of it. Now we’re here and we’re a month away from it and I just can’t wait. I’m counting down the days and I’m just super excited.
“Same as the Olympics, being part of the Solheim Cup is a big dream of mine. It would be such an honour to represent Europe, to be in such a great event, part of such a great team and I’ve always watched the Solheim Cup and it’s great to see the spirit of it and also how the team engages and everything. It would be so nice to be part of it.”
A solid performance in her third Major this week would surely impress European Captain Suzann Pettersen, the winner of the Amundi Evian Championship in 2013.
Main image: Tristan Jones/LET
