If you call Laura Davies one of the ‘sheros’ of golf, you would be right as she perfectly matches the description credited to her achievements on the course.
Laura Davies has had an illustrious career with 87 professional wins and she’s not relenting just yet, though age isn’t on her side. At 58, she’s not one to rule out of the contender list on LPGA Tours and Ladies European Tours.
She’s one of England’s most decorated golfers to date and the laurels speak for themselves. Laura Davies has the record for the most wins on the Ladies’ European Tour and she is considered one of the best female golfers of all time.
From 1985 when she turned pro to 2010, she won at least one individual title somewhere in the world every season and adding to this, was winning the Ladies European Tour Order of Merit a record seven times in 1985, 1986, 1992, 1996, 1999, 2004 and 2006.
This incredible golfer has won 45 events on the LET in her career. She has four Legend Tour victories and two are Legend Majors. She was awarded the 1995 ESPY Best Female Golfer, among several other titles to her name.
So far, Laura Davies has played 14 consecutive Solheim Cups since 1990 and has won four times. While she’s still striving to contest in more Solheim Cups, she holds the record of the all-time leader in points won in the tournament, winning 25 points from 46 matches.
Laura was also the first woman to play in a men’s European Tour event in 2004, making it to the ANZ Championship in Australia, but she didn’t make the final cut. The attempt, however, was laudable.
In 2015, she was inducted into the World Golf Hall of Fame, and a year before marked one of Laura Davies’ proudest moments in her entire career, when the Queen of England made her Dame in the 2014 honors list.
Her becoming Dame Laura Davies was after she had earlier bagged the honors of a Member of the British Empire (MBE) in 1988 and a Commander of the Order of the British Empire (CBE) in 2000, one of the highest honors that can be bestowed upon a British citizen.
Laura Davies Personal Life
Born in October 1963 to parents Rita Allen and Dave Davies, Laura Jane Davies grew up in Coventry, Warwickshire, England. Her father, Dave Davies was an engineer with the Lockeed Aircraft Corporation at the time, and in 1968, she moved with him to Georgia, USA.
In 1971, she returned to the UK due to her parent’s divorce and found herself a home in Surrey, England, where she lives to date.
Laura Davies was introduced to golf at age 10 by her father and elder brother, Tony Davies, at the Corby Municipal Golf Club in Northamptonshire. She had her first swing there and then fell in love with the game of golf.
Hooked on the game of golf as a teenager, she tried her hands at the Guildford Golf Club and then at the West Byfleet Golf Club, both in Surrey, England. It was at this stage Laura met David Regan, whom she attributed as the most influential figure in her career.
David Regan retired from pro golf in 2016, but he did well to instill in Laura the fundamentals of the game that has helped her to become the successful professional golfer she is today.
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Off the course, Laura is family-oriented, and she enjoys cooking for friends and family. She’s also interested in fast cars, shopping, and watching sports on TV, especially Soccer. Laura is a diehard fan of the English Premier League side, Liverpool FC, and the England National Team (1).
In 1996, Dame Laura Jane Davies published her autobiography title, “Naturally… Laura Davies”.
Professional Career and Wins
Laura Davies began her career as an amateur international player for Great Britain, accumulating a notable record during her amateur career. She won the English Intermediate Championship in 1983 and the Welsh Open Stroke Play Championship in 1984.
She won the South Eastern Champion in both 1983 and 1984 and became a member of Great Britain and Ireland Curtis Cup Team in 1984. She became a professional golfer in 1985 and has made her mark on the course ever since.
Davies officially joined the Ladies’ European Tour in 1985, where she won both the Rookie of the Year and Order of Merit titles. In the same year, she won the Belgium Open and went ahead to win the Sports Journalists’ Association Peter Wilson Trophy as International Newcomer of the Year.
In 1986, she won the Ladies’ British Open at Royal Birkdale and smashed the LPGA Tour in the USA, winning the US Women Open in 1987 at the Plainfield Country Club in New Jersey, USA. Winning the US Open granted her an automatic membership to the LPGA Tour in 1987.
For the first time, the LPGA changed its constitution because of Laura Davies and she has won the Championship 20 times in her career, four of which are LPGA Majors – the 1987 US Women’s Open, the 1994 and 1996 Women’s PGA Championship, and the 1996 du Maurier Classic.
She became the first woman ever to win all three major Tours in the same year in 1988, when she won twice on the LPGA Tour, three times on the LET, and once on the LGPA of Japan Tour.
As a reward for her commitment to golf, Davies was appointed a Member of the Order of the British Empire (MBE) in 1988 and later appointed Commander of the Order of the British Empire (CBE) in 2000.
In 1994 she was the first golfer, male or female, to win on five different golf tours in one calendar year: US, Europe, Asia, Japan, and Australia. She also finished first on the LGPA Tour money list in 1994, making her the first non-American to top the list (2).
Dame Laura Davies became the first European player to be ranked unofficial number one in the world in 1994 until the Women’s World Golf Rankings was officially introduced in 2006. Her four consecutive victories at the J Golf Phoenix LPGA International from 1994 to 1997 made her the first LPGA player to win the same tournament for four consecutive years.
She was named the Sports Journalists’ Association Sportswoman of the Year in 1995 and 1996, and the Golf Writers Association of America Female Player of the Year in 1994 and 1996. Davies was named the LET Player of the Year in 1996 and 1999, plus the LPGA Tour Player of the Year in 1996.
Davies was the captain of the Rest of the World team in the annual Rest of the World versus Australia cricket match held during the ANZ Ladies Masters. She currently holds the LPGA Tour record for most eagles in a season, scoring 19 during the 2004 season.
In 2012, she was named by the Golf Club Managers’ Association’s Golf Club Management magazine as the 32nd most powerful person in British golf due to her ability to inspire girls and women to play the game.
Off-Course Engagements
In the 90s, Laura was involved in her first golf course design project, assisting architect David Walker design Sutton Green Golf Club in Surrey, England, where she enjoys playing social golf with her brother and friends.
Having worked as a former bookmaker’s assistant, Davies has had a keen interest in gambling. This led her to own a racehorse to satisfy her passion.
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Sometime in 2006, Davies embarked on a 56-mile charity walk along the Great Wall of China to raise money for Great Ormond Street Hospital.
In recent times, she enjoys working on TV as an analyst cum commentator. She commentated on BBC in 2001 at The Open Championship and on Sky Sports in Paris at the 2018 Ryder Cup. She was also an analyst for the last two Solheim Cups.
She hopes to enjoy more time on TV and media as a commentator, as she looks ahead towards retirement.
Laura Davies Net Worth 2022
Her primary source of earnings is from golf and there’s limited information about her salary per annum. However, Laura Davies’ net worth is estimated at $100,000 to $1 million.
It is difficult to know how much she has earned in the course of her more than 30 years of career, but she ranks as one of the richest golfers both in the men’s and women’s categories.
Final Thoughts
As much as her thirst for winning seems far from quenching just yet, time isn’t really on her side. She knows this for a fact, but it is not deterring her from pushing for more glory.
Laura Davies is always being asked when she would call it quits and she would respond by saying the day she feels she can no longer win anymore, is the day she hangs up her Pro clubs for the final time.
She certainly has the mind and heart of a champion, eager to succeed till the very last minute. Laura is indeed a shero of the game of golf, and if there’s ever an LPGA legend you can turn to for inspiration, Laura Davies is a star that shines the light.
