BATON ROUGE – First former LSU women’s golfer Madelene Sagstrom was Southeastern Conference Player of the Year in College. Then she was the leading money winner on the Symetra Tour in her rookie season, earning full status on the Ladies Professional Golf Association Tour in 2017.
Now on Wednesday after shooting bogey free four-under par 68 at Samanah Golf Club in Morocco, Sagstrom has status to play just about anywhere she wants after winning the Ladies European Tour Final Stage Lalla Aicha Tour School title.
Sagstrom had a five-day, 90-hole score of 343, 17-under par to win by two shots over Valdis Thora Jonsdottir of Iceland. Sagstrom started the final round four strokes behind the overnight leader Celine Boutier of France.
Exactly 30 players qualified for the top available membership in the LET, with the 90-hole score mark falling at 2-under. Players who finished in 31-66 and made the 72-hole cut will also receive tour status of a lesser category.
Sagstrom won over $156,000 professionally last year in North America, with two cashes on the LPGA Tour, one in the women’s U.S. Open and the other on a sponsor’s exemption to a tournament in Canada.
The native of Sweden will now have many options as to which tournaments she will want to try to enter in 2017. There was a push from several people for her to qualify for the LET so as to enhance her future chances to be on the Solheim Cup team representing Europe. The next installment of those matches is scheduled for August 2017 in Des Moines.