2010: Flood's Impressive Rookie Year

BY Liz White | 28 Sep 2010

Rookie Ladies European Tour player, Rebecca Flood, is counting down the days until she arrives back home on Australian shores.

Growing up in a tight knit family in country New South Wales, she hasn’t seen her family or the familiar wheat fields of Coonabarabran since March.

At times it has been tough but you won’t find this 21-year-old complaining.

After qualifying in 46th position for the LET in her first attempt, Flood has played extremely well to retain her card for the 2011 season.

“It’s just been a solid, steady, good first year,” she said from her Gatwick base, south west of London.

“I have definitely relaxed as the year has progressed especially when you get to that mark where you are pretty much guaranteed your full status for next year, that takes a lot of the pressure off.

“I have had a good couple of top 20’s and I have also had a 12th place finish, so the confidence obviously builds.”

Flood enjoyed an outstanding amateur career, representing Australia at various international tournaments as well as finishing the leading amateur at the 2009 ANZ Ladies Masters and LG/Bing Lee NSW Open. In 2009 she also qualified for the Ricoh British Women’s Open and was one of just three women AIS Scholarship holders.

Despite such experience, Flood said she had no concept of how her rookie professional year would pan out.

“I didn’t really know what to expect,” she said.

“I was hoping for a couple of top 20’s ,a good finish maybe a top ten in there, but I didn’t really know what to expect week in, week out.

“Booking my own flights and my own accommodation which in amateur golf you have never really done, made the year that little bit extra stressful because I have never had to do that.”

The extra workload has not been without its dramas, an excess luggage bill the worst.

“We call them rookie errors,” she laughed.

“It ended up costing us about €120.”

Flood can certainly afford to laugh at the bill. She has had an impressive rookie year, currently sitting 47th on the money list, with almost €40,000 in the bank.

It was a professional career that started brilliantly earlier this year during the LET/ALPG co-sanctioned tournaments in Australasia.

“Because I had a good couple of weeks in Australia and New Zealand I was top 20 in the LET money list so that got me into the first couple of events in Turkey and Germany,” she said.

“Then I relied on a couple of sponsor events and after a third of the year they did a re rank which helped me a lot.”

After Flood was re ranked it essentially assured her a start in almost every tournament.

“It took a lot of stress off knowing that you were pretty well playing each week,” she explained.

“It means you can book flights and accommodation weeks in advance, rather than having a rush to book everything in a hurry to make the tournament.”

Flood is extremely close to her parents and her dad’s local bakery business has helped financially support her from a very young age. Father Keith would often spend long hours travelling the breadth of the country to allow his daughter to compete against the nation’s best. There was also the regular 18 hour round trip to see coach Gary Edwin on Queensland’s Gold Coast.

As any parent of a gifted athlete would tell you, you stop counting the cost but the dollar value is something that Flood is acutely aware of and grateful for. She is also thankful that this year she received a scholarship from Golf Australia as part of their rookie programme.

Under the Rookie Programme, eligible golfers receive support up to the value of $40,000 to assist in covering cost such as travel, accommodation and various services such as coaching fees, gym and a sports psychologist.

“I have used it for travel and coaching fees and I don’t think my parents could have lasted without it, it is the best thing to have happened,” Flood said.

“It takes a lot of pressure off not only me, but my parents as well, so I don’t have the thought of having to make money each week to live. I can just go out and play golf basically.

“I definitely couldn’t have done it without the grant, I can’t thank Golf Australia enough.”

Now that Flood feels more financially secure next year she has two goals. To improve her performance on the LET and to finally release herself from her parents purse strings.

“If Golf Australia renew my scholarship for next year and the money that I have earnt for this year, I think I can pretty well cover costs and do it myself and take some pressure off my Mum and Dad.”

After such a successful start to her professional career, all indications are Rebecca’s ambitions to finally go her own financial way, will be realised.