Laetitia Beck

Laetitia Beck לטיסיה בק
— Golfer —
Personal information
Born	(1992-02-05) February 5, 1992 Antwerp, Beligum[1]
Height	5 ft 9 in (1.75 m)[1]
Nationality	Israel[1]
Residence	Caesarea, Israel[1]
Career
College	Duke University
Status	Amateur

Laetitia Beck

Medal record
Competitor for  Israel
Maccabiah Games
Women's golf
Gold	2009 Israel	Women's individual
Gold	2013 Israel	Women's individual
Gold	2013 Israel	Women's team

Laetitia Beck (Hebrew: לטיסיה בק‎; born February 5, 1992) is an Israeli amateur golfer.

Beck has won the Israeli Championship five times, including for the first time when she was 12 years of age. She also won gold medals in golf in both the 2009 and 2013 Maccabiah Games. She attends Duke University, where she golfs for the Blue Devils and in 2011 was voted the Atlantic Coast Conference Rookie of the Year. She is the first Israeli to compete in an LPGA tournament.

Personal and early life

Beck was born in Antwerp, Belgium.^[1][2] She is Jewish, and keeps kosher, on and off the road.^[3] Her parents are Liliane and Jean Claude, who are keen recreational golfers, and she has one brother (Yoni) and two sisters (Liora and twin sister Olivia).^[1][3][4]

Beck and her family moved to Caesarea, Israel, a picturesque town midway between Tel Aviv and Haifa on the Mediterranean coast, when she was six years old. It is the only city in Israel with an 18-hole golf course, Caesarea Golf Club, and she grew up walking distance from it.^{[5][6][7][3][8]} She began playing golf there at the Caesarea Golf Academy when she was nine years old.^[7][8] She excelled in both golf and tennis when she was young.^[8]

Looking for tougher competition in golf, Beck left for the United States as a teenager.^[9] For high school, starting at the age of 14 she attended the IMG Pendleton School in Bradenton, Florida. She graduated in 2010.^{[1][8][10][11]}

Beck resides in Caesarea, Israel, when she is not in school. When she reached 18 years of age, she enlisted in the Israeli army and completed her required military exams. But the army designated her a sports prodigy, and postponed her military service until after she finishes her golf career.^{[1][3][12][13]}

Golf career

Beck is the first Israeli to compete in an LPGA Tour tournament, and displays the flag of Israel on her golf shoes (and sometimes on her hat or clubs), and a blue-and-white magen david symbol on her golf apparel.^{[6][7][8][14]} She noted: "When I play golf I'm very proud to represent Israel. My goal is to represent Israel and the Jewish people."^[6]

2004–10

Beck won her first Israeli Ladies Championship at the age of 12, at the Israel Open Golf Tournament.^{[4][8][14][15]} In May 2005, at the age of 13, she won the Israel Open Golf Championship for the second year in a row.^[16] Seven months later, she made a hole-in-one on the first day of the Doral Open in Florida.^[17]

In 2008, she was again Israeli women's champion and won the 2008 Rolex Israel Open Championship.^[18][19] She also won the Junior Israel Open Championship, the University of Florida Championship, her section of the Doral Silver Classic Tournament, and finished third at the 2008 Girl's British Amateur Championship (and was awarded a first place trophy in the category of Eastern Europe and Middle East Youth).^{[20][21][22][23]} That year, she was also chosen as one of Israel's sportswomen of the decade, by Israel's Culture and Sport Ministry.^[24]

In 2009, at the age of 17 she finished in second place at the Duke of York Young Champions Trophy in Scotland, one stroke behind the winner.^[25][26] She received the runner-up prize from Prince Andrew, Duke of York.^[25] That year, she also won the Israel Junior and Ladies Championships and the 2009 Doral Publix Junior Classic (with a 54-hole total of 209, 7 under par).^[20]

Beck won the 2010 Verizon Junior Heritage by two shots with rounds of 73 and 74 in Hilton Head Island, South Carolina.^[27] She was named Golfweek's Player of the Week on February 8, 2010.^[27] Later in February she took second place at the Annika Invitational.^[28][29] She was listed No. 5 in the Golfweek/Sagarin Performance Index in May 2010, and that month she took second in the Thunderbird International Junior in Scottsdale, Arizona.^[30][31] In June she won the Caesarea Junior Golf Championship.^[32]

Beck is attending Duke University on a golf scholarship, and majoring in psychology.^[1][16] She began playing for the Duke Blue Devils beginning with the 2010–11 campaign.^[30] Duke's coach described her as "a very hard worker" who "has a beautiful, powerful golf swing."^[30]

In September 2010, she was ranked #4 in Ladies European Amateur rankings, appeared on the 2010 Golfweek Players-to-Watch list, and was ranked third-best freshman.^[10] In October, she was named 1 of 12 Rolex Junior First-team All-Americans by the American Junior Golf Association.^[33][34] She was also ranked #2 among US-based female youth golfers, and #6 among all US female golfers.^[35]

2011–present

In March 2011, she took third at the Allstate Sugar Bowl Intercollegiate in New Orleans.^[36] Beck was named Atlantic Coast Conference (ACC) Golfer of the Month for April 2011, after a third-place finish at the Liz Murphey Collegiate.^[37] She registered a 73.75 stroke average during her freshman 2010–11 season, sixth in the ACC and tops among freshmen.^[37]

In May 2011, the ACC named Beck the ACC Rookie of the Year in a vote of the league's nine head coaches.^[37] She followed, among others, former Blue Devils Beth Bauer (1999), Liz Janangelo (2003), Brittany Lang (2004), and Amanda Blumenherst (2006).^[37] She was also named to the 12-person All-ACC squad, and to the 2010–11 ACC Academic Honor Roll, for academic excellence as a student-athlete.^[37][38]

In August 2011, she qualified to participate as an amateur in the CN Canadian Women's Open in Montreal, Canada.^[39] She finished tied for 70th in her first LPGA Tour event.^[40] In September, she became the first woman to defeat all men to win the Israel Open Golf Championship, as the Caesarea Golf Club allowed her to compete against men rather than women, so that she could play stiffer competition.^[8]

In October 2011, she decline a request to join the UNC Tar-Heels Invitational 54-hole competition, because it conflicted with the holiest Jewish holiday of Yom Kippur, the Day of Atonement.^[14][41][42] Instead, she spent the day fasting and praying.^[41] She said: "My Judaism is very important to me, and I keep all the other holidays. On Yom Kippur, no matter what, I have to fast."^[14] Her decision prompted comparisons to baseball pitcher Sandy Koufax not playing a game in the 1965 World Series because if fell on Yom Kippur.^[6]

In the 2011–12 season, as a sophomore she had a 74.97 stroke average, three top-10 finishes, and for the second time was an All-ACC selection.^[43]

In April 2013, she took second at the Atlantic Coast Conference Championship, in Greensboro, North Carolina.^[44] In August, Golf World cited her as one of the "top 50 players to watch".^[45]

In the 2012–13 season, as a junior she had a 73.16 stroke average, and earned Golfweek All-America and National Golf Coaches Association (NGCA) Honorable Mention All-America honors, and for the third time was an All-ACC selection.^[45][46]

Maccabiah Games

Beck won an individual gold medal and a team gold medal in golf at the 2009 Maccabiah Games.^{[4][8][10][47]} She then won both an individual gold medal and a team gold medal at the 2013 Maccabiah Games, shooting 69 in each of the three rounds, finishing 9-under, 15 strokes ahead of her next competitor.^[12][48] She helped Israel win gold by a stroke in the team event, over Team USA.^[12]

See also

• List of Jewish golfers

References

External links

• Women's World Amateur Golf Ranking (WAGR) player ranking
• GolfDigest stats
• Video: "Women's Golf: On the Green With Laetitia Beck", May 18, 2012