Just 12 months ago, Ines lakhlalech was still an amateur when she entered the Ladies European Tour Q-School and finished T15 at La Manga Club earning herself playing privileges for the following season, She then turned pro and made her professional debut at the Aramco Saudi Ladies International back in March of this year. By the end of play after 8 round at the final LPGA Q-SCHOOl of 2022, Ines became the first Moroccan and the first Arab to earn an LPGA card.
6 months after her professional debut, she won The Lacoste Ladies Open de France in September becoming the first Moroccan, first Arab and first North African woman to win a Ladies European Tour title. In 2023, she will be competing with the best golfers in the world.
After the success in the LET, she embarked on a long journey of qualifying stages in an attempt to earn an LPGA card, she successfully passed all three qualifying stages finishing the last last stage T12, – 19.
During the final stage that stretched through eight rounds divided in two weeks, Ines proved that she can be one of the best golfers in the world, she successfully gained an LPGA card on the first attempt going through all the qualifying stages. The results of all her rounds can be found here
Her is A brief recap of Ines career so far:
- Laklalech, 25, is from Casablanca, Morocco
- Laklalech is the first LPGA Tour Member from Morocco, as well as the first Member from North Africa and the Arab region
- She advanced through all three stages of LPGA Qualifying; she tied for 25th in Stage I and tied for 33rd in Stage II
- In September 2022, she won the LET’s Lacoste Ladies Open de France, becoming that Tour’s first Moroccan, Arab and North African winner
- She turned professional after finishing 15th at LET Q-School in December 2021
- Laklalech played collegiate golf at Wake Forest University for the 2015-2016 season
At the same time, in Qatar, the Moroccan football team has made history and become the first African and Arab nation to advance to the semi-finals of the world cup, an article on the LPGA website dedicated to Ines passion for the Moroccan team and how it helped her in the qualifying stages, she said commenting on this: “I’m a big fan of the Moroccan National Team, so I’m super, super happy. I’m going to be watching the game right now. I have to see how it went. But it definitely gave me an extra boost today on the course. I have been watching very closely what the national coach is saying about the team because of its history. And his words really gave me confidence that everything is possible because that’s their mindset right now. I think it’s all connected and related because I’ve been watching videos of the press conferences every single day”
