Bishop’s Stortford Golf Club member Rebecca Earl secures full Ladies’ European Tour Access Series playing rights

Rebecca Earl negotiated seven gruelling rounds to secure full playing rights for the LET (Ladies’ European Tour) Access Series.

The Bishop’s Stortford Golf Club member missed out on achieving a place on the main professional tour, but did enough to earn a place in the competition’s official development series.

And Earl, who was named Young Sports Personality of the Year at the 2019 Indies Community Awards, is now looking forward to seeing if she can use the 18-event series as a stepping stone towards achieving her dream of being a regular player on the LET.

This time last year, the former Felsted School student headed to Morocco for the LET Q-School and, by her own admission, did not play well and failed to advance from pre-qualifying, meaning she had to rely on invitations to get competitive golf in 2024.

Fast-forward 12 months and it was a very different story for Earl as she fared far better in the north African country.

Pre-qualifying consisted of three rounds at the Noria Golf Glub in Marrakech where a top-20 finish was needed to advance to final qualifying.

Earl, who won the Women’s Open Stroke Play Championship at the age of 19, produced a slightly nervy 77 on day one, but followed it up with a level-par 73 before a closing 69 secured her eighth place.

She was then joined by 152 other competitors - many of whom had lost their European tour playing rights by failing to finish high enough in the Order of Merit - for two rounds of final qualifying at both the Royal Golf Club and the neighbouring Al Maaden Golf Club.

Only the top 69 progressed to the final and Earl, who represented England as an amateur, had rounds of 71, 75, 74 and 75 to finish five over par and in a tie for 91st place.

But earning playing rights for the Access Series is a major achievement and she will take part in 15 competitions across nine European countries in 2025, starting with a three-day tournament at the luxurious Terre Blanche Golf Resort in France in April.