Bronte Law: 'Competition with Georgia Hall and Charley Hull pushes me. Now I want to be England's best'
Appropriately enough for someone named after England’s most famous triumvirate of sisters, Bronte Law will on Thursday set about proving there are three young golfing starlets for her country to be excited about.
Georgia Hall, 22, and Charley Hull, 23, are the obvious St George hopes for the the season’s opening major, the Ana Inspiration, along with 31-year-old Jodi Ewart Shadoff. But at 55th in the world rankings, Law, 24, is earning her own reputation on the US circuit, with many experts believing she has what it takes to join her countrywomen in the elite.
“I am establishing a name for myself on tour, but I have a long way to go in terms of what I want to achieve,” she said. “Everyone has their own rate of growth and I think mine’s progressing nicely right now. I've got a lot more to give, I'm willing to work as hard as I need to in order to get to the top, but I should not panic.”
Indeed, she should not. The product of Stockport has only been a professional for just over two years, after taking a more different route into the pro game than Hull and Hall. While they both joined the paid-ranks straight from school as teenagers, Law kept to her gameplan of completing a four-year degree in US college first.
“That was my goal from a young age and something I found very fulfilling,” Law said. “I’ve got a great qualification [in sociology] from one of the finest universities in the world [University of California, Los Angeles] and, although I don’t necessarily want anything to fall back on, I wouldn’t change it for anything. It was good from a golf perspective as well as it taught me to how to play American courses.”
Such was the brilliance of her amateur career, one could be forgiven for suspecting Law did not have much learning to do about her chosen profession. She reached world No 2 in the amateur rankings and in her third Curtis Cup appearance became just the second player – from either America or Great Britain and Ireland – in the 87-year history of the biennial match to win five out of five games. With Hall and Hull also having previously climbed into the amateur world top-three, Law carried on the English advance.
“There is only a few years between all of us, so I have known Georgia and Charley like forever in the national set-ups and everything,” she said. “And what they have done has driven me on. They have shown me what is possible. Charley has won on the LPGA Tour and Georgia winning the Women’s British Open last year was huge. They push me and I know they push each other and this will only increase over time. If one of us achieves something, the other two will want it; we will constantly be trying to better each other and be the top British player out there. The competition we have between each other is very healthy; it's something we are lucky to have.”
Certainly, England is fortunate to have this group, with others threatening to come through such as Charlotte Thomas, the 26-year-old who finished sixth two weeks ago in Phoenix, and Meghan MacLaren, 24, who retained the NSW Open three weeks ago on the Ladies European Tour.
“We all know that English men’s golf is doing well, but it all too often goes unnoticed that English women’s golf is in a very good place as well,” Law said. “It’s a shame that women’s golf doesn’t get more exposure in our country because it certain deserves it. It’s becoming more popular over here in the United States and it would be great to see that same sort of growth in the UK.”
Law lives in Arizona and the twang in her accent highlights how settled she is. But the urge to play under the blue and gold is just as apparent and that is why she went through LET qualifying school in December. “My main reason was to become eligible to play for Europe in the Solheim Cup [against the US at Gleneagles in September],” Law said. “But I also wanted to do it because I want to play more in Europe. I have so many ambitions, but I just have to take it one stage at a time and for someone as competitive as me that isn’t easy all the time.”
Law’s immediate task is to better her 25th place finish in last year’s Ana Inspiration at Palm Springs and make the world sit up and take notice. She would then doubtless be asked about her christian name. “My mum was really into Jane Eyre and Wuthering Heights and loved the Bronte Sisters,” she said. “I guess I should have been a writer, really. But mum is proud of what I’m doing instead.”
