Women's Golf
Leonie Bettel - Women's Golf - University of Kentucky Athletics

LeonieBettel

  • class Senior
  • Hometown Vienna, Austria
  • Previous School NC State
  • Major Civil Engineering
  • High school Grg3 Kundmanngasse

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Chip Shots

Dream course: St. Andrews
Dream foursome (including herself): Rory McIlroy, Melissa Reid, Sergio Garcia
First time she broke par: August 2012 
Favorite club: 8 iron 
Favorite golf movie: Legend of Bagger Vance
Golfer she tries to emulate: Rory McIlroy 
 

2018-19 (Senior): Three-time champion, the second most in a single season in school history and tied for the second most in a career … Finished with the best single-season stroke average in school history with a 73.16 average, narrowly edging Isabelle Johansson’s 73.42 mark in 2016-17 … Also broke Johansson’s 2016-17 single-season mark with 14 rounds of par or better … All-SEC Second Team pick, UK’s first All-SEC selection since Lauri Berles in 1997 and the first of the Golda Borst era … Finished her career with a 74.4 stroke average over four seasons (two at UK and two at NC State) … Tied for 67th at the NCAA Auburn Regional as an individual qualifier with a score of 13-over par 229 at the Saugahatchee Country Club in Opelika, Alabama … Tied for 52nd at the SEC Championship with a score of 13-over par (229) at the Greystone Golf & Country Club in Birmingham, Alabama … Notched her seventh top-20 finish of the season by tying for 15th place at the Clemson Invitational at Lake Keowee with a score of 2-under par (73-69) at the Reserve at Lake Keowee in Sunset, South Carolina … Tied for 37th at the Bryan National Collegiate with a score of 225 (9-over par) at Bryan Park Champions Golf Course in Browns Summit, North Carolina … Named SEC Women’s Co-Golfer of the Week on March 20 following her win at the Clover Cup, becoming just the fourth Wildcat to win the award and the first since 2014 … Won her third championship of the season with a four-way tie for first place at the Clover Cup at Longbow Golf Club in Mesa, Arizona … With the win in Mesa, moved within one way of Kate Rogerson (1987-88) for the most wins in single-season school history … Led by as many as five strokes at the Clover Cup but had to rally late after falling behind in the third round and sank a birdie putt on the 72nd and final hole to tie for the title … Finished the Clover Cup at 2-under par (214), including a 67 in the first round … Tied for 47th with a score of 13-over par at the Gold Rush Invitational in Seal Beach, California … Notched her fifth top-20 showing of the season in five stroke-play tournament tries by tying for 13th at the Reynolds Lake Oconee Collegiate Championship in Greensboro, Georgia … Posted a 10-over-par score (73-80-73) in Greensboro … Dropped her match vs. Louisville’s Lauren Hartlage 2 & 1 in the match-play Battle of the Bluegrass at Hoover Country Club in Birmingham, Alabama … Averaged a team-best 70.6 stroke average in the fall, which would be a single-season school record if the season ended then … Placed in the top 10 in all four tournaments in the fall, including two championships … Nine of her 12 rounds in the fall were par or better, which is already the third most in single-season school history … Tied for sixth place at the Trinity Forest Invitational at Trinity Forest Golf Club in Dallas with a 3-over-par 219 (76-74-69) … Her 69 in the final was the best of the day … Won her second straight individual title with a victory at UK’s Bettie Lou Evans Invitational at the University Club of Kentucky in Lexington while leading the Wildcats to the team championship, UK’s first in five years … Became the first Wildcat to win two tournaments in a season since Lauri Berles in 1995-96 … Shot a 205 (11-under par) for a two-shot victory with rounds of 71-66-68 … The 205 was a 54-hole school record, a 54-hole tournament record and a 54-hole career low … Also helped UK to a 54-hole school record team score of 858 … Won her first college tournament by four strokes at the Mercedes-Benz-Collegiate Championship at Cherokee Country Club in Knoxville, Tennessee … Was dominating from start to finish at the Mercedes-Benz with a then-career-low 54-hole total of 208 (5-under par) … The 208 was then tied for the best 54-hole score of the Golda Borst era … Rallied from a two-shot deficit on the final day thanks to a tournament-tying-record score of 65 on the final day (she set the record the year before) … Began the year in midseason form by tying for sixth place, tied for her best career finish, at the Minnesota Invitational at Prestwick Golf Club in Woodbury, Minnesota … Shot even par or better in all three rounds (72-72-71) for a 1-under-par 215, just one stroke off her best score as a Wildcat … SEC Spring Academic Honor Roll member. 

Summer 2018: Cruised to a wire-to-wire championship at the Austrian Ladies Open with a score of 5-under par … Three of her four rounds were in red numbers en route to the Austrian Ladies Open title at Golfclub Klagenfurt-Seltenheim in Klagenfurt, Austria … Helped lead the Diamond Country Club win the Austrian Team Championship for the second straight year … Led the Austria National Team to a 15th-place finish at the World Team Amateur Championships in Ireland … Shot a combined score of 5-over par at the World Team Amateur Championships over 72 holes with two rounds of even par or better … Represented Austria in the 2018 European Ladies Team Championship … Played in the Anna Nordqvist Vasteras Open, a professional event, at Västerås Club in Västerås, Sweden … Played in the British Ladies’ Amateur Championship at Hillside Golf Course in Southport, England … Also played in the European Ladies Individual Championship at Penati Golf Resort in Senica, Slovakia … Competed in the Viaplay Ladies Finnish Open at Mesilla Golf Club in Lahti, Finland.

2017-18 (Junior): Tied for the best stroke average on the team in 2017-18 with a 74.8 average … Led the Wildcats with four top-20 finishes … Tied for the team lead with two top-10 showings … One of three Wildcats to play in every event in 2017-18 … Carded five rounds of par or better, tied for second on the team … Team used 25 of her 28 rounds towards the team score, tied for second on the team … Fired the lowest 18-hole round of the season with a 65 at the Mercedes-Benz Collegiate Championship in Knoxville, Tennessee … Tied for 39th at the SEC Championship in Birmingham, Alabama, with a score of 14-over par … Posted her second straight top-10 finish by tying for 10th at the Bryan National Collegiate in Browns Summit, North Carolina, at 7-over par (74-72-77) … Clinched a 3-2 match-play victory over No. 16 Kent State at the University Club of Kentucky with a 1-up victory over the 35th-ranked player in the country on the second playoff hole … Tied her career-best finish in a tournament with a sixth-place showing at the Clover Cup in Mesa, Arizona … Shot a 2-over-par 218 (69-76-73) at the Clover Cup and spent parts of the first and second round in first place … Made a strong comeback and moved up 30 spots over the last two rounds to tie for 32nd at 11-over par at the Hurricane Invitational in Coral Gables, Florida … Tied for 39th at the Florida State Challenge in Tallahassee, Florida, at 10-over par … Tied for 32nd at the Florida Challenge in Lecanto, Florida, at 9-over par … Posted a 74.2 stroke average in the fall with a team-high two top-20 finishes and a team-high-tying three par-or-better rounds … Team used her scoring in nine of a possible 11 rounds in the fall … Tied for 28th at the Landfall Tradition in Wilmington, North Carolina, with a two-day total of 147 (3-over par), including an even-par 72 in the final round … Notched her second top-20 finish as a Wildcat by tying for 13th place at the Cardinal Cup in Simpsonville, Kentucky, with a 224 (8-over par) … Recorded her first career hole-in-one in the third round of the Bettie Lou Evans Invitational at the University Club of Kentucky’s signature hole, the par-3 eighth … Made her Kentucky debut with a team-best 19th-place finish at the Mercedes-Benz Collegiate Championship in Knoxville, Tennessee … Thanks to a final-round 65, carded a three-round total of 214 (1-over par) … Her 65 at the Mercedes-Benz Collegiate Championship marked the best 18-hole score in the 21 years of the tournament, tied for the third-best mark in school history, was her collegiate career low and tied her all-time personal best … SEC First-Year Academic Honor Roll member … Dean’s List in fall 2017, spring 2018.

Summer 2017: With back-to-back rounds of 70, placed 14th at 4-under par at the European Ladies Team Championship … Finished in a tie for 64th at the European Ladies Amateur Championship in Switzerland … Helped lead the Diamond Country Club to the Austrian Team Championship.

2016-17 (Sophomore at NC State): Played in all 10 events for NC State, finishing the year with a 74.5 stroke average, third best on the team … Collected two top-10 tournament finishes … Turned in five rounds at even par and five rounds under par … 24 of her 28 rounds counted towards the team total … Competed for NC State at the NCAA Regional in Albuquerque, New Mexico …Tied for sixth at the Bryan National Collegiate in Browns Summit, North Carolina, with a total score of 5-under par (72-70-69) … Her final-day 69 at the Bryan National Collegiate was a collegiate season low and her 54-hole score of 211 was then a career best … Shot an even-par 72 in NC State’s dual match vs. Hawaii in Kane’ohe, Hawaii, to finish in third place … Posted a three-day total of 2-under par (71-71-72) to tie for ninth at at the Tar Heel Invitational in Chapel Hill, North Carolina … Competed for Austria in the 2016 World Amateur Championship in Mexico.

2015-16 (Freshman at NC State): Competed in seven tournaments during her first season with the Wolfpack … Accumulated a 75.8 stroke average, highlighted by three rounds of even par or better … Earned a spot in the lineup for NC State’s NCAA Regional appearance in Baton Rouge, Louisiana … Placed 24th at the Landfall Tradition in Wilmington, North Carolina, at 4-over par to tie her career-high finish … Fired a final-round 68 at the Landfall Tradition for a then-career-low 18-hole score … Led the team with a 24th-place finish in the first contest of the season at the Cougar Classic in Hanahan, South Carolina … Posted a 72 in the first round of her collegiate career at the Cougar Classic … Women’s Golf Coaches Association All-American Scholar in 2016.

Before NC State: Member of Austrian national golf team since 2012 … Led Team Austria to third place at the European Girls Team Championship in Czech Republic … Shot 6-under par at the 2015 Ladies European Championship and placed 14th … Crowned the U18 champion at both the 2014 and 2015 Austrian Stroke Play tournaments … Won the 2014 Austrian Match Play tournament in the U18 division … Captured the Serbian Stroke Play championship in 2014 … Tabbed the U21 Austrian Player of the Year in 2014.

Personal: Born April 12 … Daughter of Susanne Bettel and Fritz Thalhammer … Has an older sister, Marlene … Native of Vienna, Austria … Nickname is Leo … Majoring in civil engineering … With extensive history competing for the Austrian national team, has competed in golf events in Austria, Japan, France, Czech Republic, Slovakia, Germany, Serbia, Russia, Estonia, Sweden, Spain, Scotland, Mexico and Northern Ireland … Considers her 6-under 66 at the 2015 European Ladies Amateur Championship at Murhof, Austria, to be her most memorable round of her career because it was a bogey-free round and was in her home country … Won the CAD Modellierwettewerb in 2015, a modeling contest, by remodeling the Tokyo Skytree. 

Why she chose UK: “Coach Borst made a really good impression on me and was definitely one of the reasons why I chose Kentucky. With the facilities and resources here at Kentucky, it made it easy for me to decide that I want to be a part of Kentucky.”

Bettel’s Scorecard 

Year Events Rounds Strokes Stroke Avg. Low 18 Low 54 Top 10* Top 20* Match Play Best Finish
2015-16^ 7 21 1,592 75.3 68 220 0 0 T24 (Twice)
2016-17^ 10 28 2,085 74.5 69 211 2 2 T6 (Bryan National Collegiate)
2017-18 11 28 2,093 74.8 65 214 2 4 1-0 T6 (Clover Cup)
2018-19 12 32 2,341 73.2 65 205 5 7 0-1 1 (Three Times)
Career 40 109 8,111 74.4 65 205 9 13 1-1 1 (Three Times)

*Does not include dual matches
^ Played at NC State

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