It is difficult to believe that Becky Morgan is from the same land as Dai Rees and Ian Woosnam, two of the most pugnacious and fiery little Welshmen in the annals of UK golf. Morgan has shown herself to be every bit as dogged as either, only she is disarmingly unassuming where Rees and Woosnam enjoyed being to the fore.
Having turned professional in 2000, Morgan never missed a cut in the first eight starts of her rookie year and notched as many as four top-10 finishes. In the French Open of that summer, she only lost to Suzann Pettersen at the third extra hole.
The expectation was that a win was just around the corner on one or other of the LPGA and LET circuits. However, though she spent two years in the LPGA’s top 30, “around the corner” turned out to be a little matter of eighteen years.
Imagine playing professionally for almost two decades without breaking through with a win, despite coming to the tours as one of the favorites to be a multiple champion. Morgan was 44 and fearing that she might never know victory when she captured the LET’s 2018 Hero Indian Open. “It’s taken me eighteen years and it’s a mixture of excitement and relief that I’ve finally done it!” she said.
"Her win in India has been a while coming,” said Richard Dixon, the Wales Golf Chief Executive, “but she had an excellent amateur career and you have to be a really good player to last as long as she has in the professional ranks. We’re proud of her now and we’ve always been proud of her.”
Morgan’s grandfather had introduced Becky and her twin sister, Rachel, to the game. Not only that but, being retired, he was in a position to chauffeur the pair from one tournament to another.
Jill Edwards, a prominent Welsh official, remembers how the twin sister looked at one point as if she might be the better. She though, gave up while Becky headed for the University of North Carolina where she would win 10 collegiate titles.
“At first,” said Edwards, “we wondered how a quiet girl like Becky would get on over there. Some players who were going to America at that point blossomed and some didn’t. As it was, Becky enjoyed every minute of it and, for the most part, she stayed put in the States thereafter.”
Edwards it was who captained the Curtis Cup side of 2000 in which Becky defeated another of golf’s other more resolute citizens. Namely, Angela Stanford, who won the Evian in 2018. Edwards said Becky always wanted to please in a team context, even when it came to wearing a pair of uniform shoes which were giving her a blister rather than donning some worn but comfortable alternatives. Edwards did not find out until it was too late to do anything about it, other than to instruct the player to remove the offending shoe between shots.
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