Maria Verchenova from Russia

(Sunday 11th March 2007) – Following our feature introducing eight of the Ladies European Tour’s newest members, here we introduce a further 11 players who will make their debut season on the LET this year.

These players have earned their full cards to compete on the 2007 Ladies European Tour schedule and they will all be competing for the 2007 Ryder Cup Wales Rookie of the Year Award (in association with the Bill Johnson Trophy).

The European players will all be eligible to earn Solheim Cup points, which will give them an added incentive to play well this season. The 2007 Solheim Cup, which is one of the most prestigious events in all of sport, takes place at Halmstad Golfklubb in Halmstad, Sweden, from 14-16th September.

The Players:

Cassandra Kirkland

Cassandra Kirkland (France)

The 22-year-old Cassandra Kirkland finished joint 14th at the Ladies European Tour’s Qualifying School for the 2007 season in November and this Parisienne will make her professional debut on the LET this year.

Kirkland attended the University of Arizona in the United States from 2002-2006 and was a member of the NGCA All American Team in 2005. She won the UNLV Invitational in 2005 and was presented with the Golfstat award for par-five scoring in 2004 and 2005. She was a semi-finalist in the British Girls' Amateur Championship in 2001.

173cm tall with brown hair and hazel eyes, Kirkland started to play golf at age seven. Her hobbies and interests include all sports, reading, music, travel, movies, spending time with friends and physical training. She is attached to Club Saint Nom La Breteche in France and is related to Eddie Cheever, an Indy 500 winner, Formula 1 driver and IRA Team Owner.

Anne Lise Caudal

Anne Lise Caudal (France)

Anne Lise Caudal also tied for 14th place at LET Q School and will make her debut on the LET this year. This 22-year-old hails from the town of St Jean de Luz. 1.70m tall with brown hair and green eyes, she started to play golf at 10 years old. Her hobbies include sports and nature. She represents La Nivelle Golf Club.


Maria Verchenova (Russia)

The 20-year-old Maria Verchenova becomes the second Russian born player to join the Ladies European Tour after Uliana Rotmistrova played on the Tour in 2004 and 2005.

Maria Verchenova from Russia

Verchenova, who is attached to Moscow City Golf Club, will make her professional debut this year after she finished joint 14th at Qualifying School.

174cm tall with dark brown hair and brown eyes, she started to play golf at the age of 12. She studied at the Moscow State University of Sport and lists dancing amongst her hobbies.

Verchenova was the Russian Amateur Champion in 2004 and 2006 and the Austrian Amateur Champion in 2006. She was both the Latvian Amateur Champion and Slovenian Amateur Champion in 2005. She was runner up in the 2006 World University Championships in Turin.

Lee-Anne Pace

Lee-Anne Pace (South Africa)

Pace turned professional in May 2005 and joined the LET in late 2006 after finishing tied for 18th place at Q School in La Cala.

The 26-year-old was a fully exempt member of the US Duramed Futures Tour in 2006 and 2007, where she recorded three top ten finishes in 2006 including two top five places. She is a non-exempt member of the LPGA Tour in 2007.

In February, she claimed her maiden professional victory in the Pam Golding Ladies International at Dainfern Country Club on the Ladies African Tour. One of Pace’s goals is to earn a place on the South African team for the Women’s World Cup of Golf in 2008 and a win so early in her career suggests she could be one of the leading LET rookies in 2007.

As an amateur, Pace won the 2003 Ohio Valley Conference Championship while at Murray State University. She was the Ohio Valley Conference Player of the Year and Murray State Player of the Year in 2003 and a 2005 NCAA All-American Second Team selection while at University of Tulsa. Here she was the 2005 University of Tulsa Player of the Year and she earned a degree in Psychology.

168cm tall with brown hair and green eyes, Pace’s hobbies include reading and all water sports. She was influenced by her mother and father, coaches Val Holland, Holley Hair, and Brad Whalen and is attached to Fancourt Country Club in South Africa.

Hanna-Leena Salonen

Hanna-Leena Salonen (Finland)

Salonen, 26, hails from the City of Kotka in Finland and she joins the LET after tying for 18th place at Q School.

As an amateur, Salonen finished 23rd in the 2006 Finnair Masters at Helsinki GC, where she was the leading amateur.

She was a Finnish National Team member from 1997-2006 and a member of the Finnish Golf Tour from 1998-2006, where she was an eight-time champion. (She is the tour’s current record holder for the most victories by a player).

She played on the Telia Tour from 2000-2006 where she won the 2004 Felix Finnish Ladies Open.

158cm tall with red/brown hair and grey/green eyes, Salonen started to play golf aged 10. Her hobbies and interests include home decorating, cooking, going to the gym and jogging. She is attached to Kymen Golf and has a website: www.hannaleenasalonen.fi

Anna Rossi

Anna Rossi (Italy)

Anna Rossi, aged 20, from Treviso in Italy, finished tied for 20th place at LET Q School.

Rossi is the 2006 Ladies British Open Amateur Strokeplay Champion and was runner up in the 2003 and 2004 Italian Internationals.

She was 6th in the 2006 Sherry Cup and 9th in the Ladies Individual European Championship the same year.

163cm tall with blonde hair and green eyes, Rossi started to play golf at 12 years old. Her hobbies and interests include music, shopping and going to the gym.

Bree Turnbull

Bree Turnbull (Australia)

Turnbull finished joint 23rd at LET Q School, having just turned professional in September.

The 21-year-old from Perth represented Australia from 2005-2006 and was the winner of numerous state titles. She was a member of the Australian Tasman Cup Team in 2005 and was a member of the Western Australia State Team from 2002-2006. She also won the Western Australia State Championship and the Victoria Stroke Play Championship in 2004.

179cm tall with brown hair and green eyes, Turnbull started playing golf at the age of 11. She lists music, fitness and hanging out with friends amongst her hobbies.

Martina Gillen

Martina Gillen (Ireland)

Gillen tied for 27th place at LET Q School earning her full card for the 2007 season.

The 24-year-old from Dublin joins the Tour following a strong amateur career during which she was the 2003 Irish Close Champion, the 2005 Scottish Strokeplay champion and the 2006 Irish Strokeplay Champion. She was a member of the 2005 Vagliano Team and represented GB&I in the 2006 Curtis Cup at Bandon Dunes.

5’10” tall with brown hair and green eyes, Gillen started to play golf at age 11. She enjoys going to the cinema, shopping and listening to music. She attended Kent State University in the USA and won six college tournaments. She was also a two-time All American Honourable Mention.

Christine Hallström

Christine Hallström (Sweden)

Hallström, 24, won the 2006 Telia Tour Ranking, thereby automatically earning fully exempt status for the 2007 Ladies European Tour. In 2006, she posted nine top ten finishes and 14 top fifteen finishes on the Telia Tour, which is an official feeder tour to the LET. She won the Swedish Strokeplay Championship and was the player of the month in July. She also played on the Tour in 2005.

As an amateur, Hallström was a four-time winner of the Hulta Junior Open, from 2000-2003. She was the leading amateur in the following Telia Tour events: Rejmes Ladies Open 2003, Osteraker Ladies Open 2004.

Hallström attended Wake Forest University in the USA where she won an All-ACC Award in 2004. She was part of the winning team at the Lady Gator Invitational in 2005.

172cm tall with blonde hair and blue eyes, Hallström’s hobbies and interests include interior decorating, reading and spending time with family and friends. She started to play golf at the age of eight and was influenced by father and golf coach Magnus Elwin.

Mette Buus

Mette Buus (Denmark)

Buus, 20, from Aalborg in Denmark, finished second on the 2006 Telia Tour Order of Merit and like Hallström she automatically earned fully exempt status for the 2007 Ladies European Tour.

As an amateur, she won the 1999 Nordic Junior Championship and she played for the Danish National Team from 1997-2004. She was influenced by her first coach Mr. Jan Frej Pedersen and her mother.

162cm tall with dark brown hair and greeny blue eyes, her hobbies include music, skiing and seeing friends. She graduated in Sports Fitness in 2002 and is attached to Sjyske Eagles GC.

Amy Yang, the 2006 ANZ Ladies Masters Champion

Amy Yang (South Korea)

Amy won the ANZ Ladies Masters at Royal Pines GC in Australia at the beginning of February 2006 at the age of 16 years, 9 months and 18 days. She became the LET's youngest ever winner and she was also the first amateur to win on Tour in 22 years, since Gillian Stewart won the IBM European Open at the Belfry in 1984.

Following her victory the LET's Executive Director, Alexandra Armas, approved Amy's membership of the LET - that approval requiring a special exemption due to her being under the age of 18 normally required for membership. Amy turned professional in October 2006 at the age of 17 and became the Tour's youngest member. She earned exempt status as a tournament winner, which will see her exempt on the LET until November 30th, 2009.

Amy won the ANZ Ladies Masters with rounds of 70, 67, 70 and 68 for a 13-under-par 275 total. She defeated 22-year-old Catherine Cartwright of the United States in a one-hole play-off but because of Amy's amateur status, Catherine Cartwright claimed the AUS$120,000 first prize. As a result of her playoff victory on Australia's Gold Coast, Amy was invited to play in two further events on the Ladies European Tour as an amateur in 2006: the Evian Masters in France, where she finished tied 53rd and the Weetabix Women's British Open at Royal Lytham & St Annes, where she finished 60th. She won the Smyth Salver as the leading amateur in the championship, beating Belen Mozo by six strokes. Amy was also the New Zealand Amateur Champion in 2005.

In October 2006, Amy made her professional debut at the Dubai Ladies Masters where she finished T4th in a quality field. She earned EUR 24,100 which placed her at 76th on the New Star Money List. The LET Players’ Council decided that Amy will compete as a rookie in 2007.

At the beginning of 2007, she played in the MFS Women’s Australian Open, where she tied for 20th place and the ANZ Ladies Masters, where she narrowly missed the cut.
Amy intends to play in nine LET tournaments in 2007 whilst continuing with her school studies at Robina High School on the Gold Coast in Australia.