• Bruce will get her rookie season underway on the LET at the Magical Kenya Ladies Open which tees off at the Vipingo Ridge PGA Baobab course on February 8.
•A member of the Philippine national team, Bruce enjoyed a successful junior career, winning the 2015 Kartini Cup at the South East Asian Team Golf Championships before competing at the 2017 and 2018 Girls Junior PGA Championship.
Image: HANDOUT
Philippines' Samantha Bruce is among the top players who have landed an invitation for the Ladies European Tour (LET) set to start on February 8 at the Vipingo Ridge PGA Baobab.
Bruce is seeking to make history in the 2024 edition as she becomes her country’s third player to compete on the iconic Ladies European Tourcircuit.
A member of the Philippine national team, Bruce enjoyed a successful junior career, winning the 2015 Kartini Cup at the South East Asian Team Golf Championships before competing at the 2017 and 2018 Girls Junior PGA Championship.
With aspirations of becoming a professional golfer, the Filipino would enroll at Seattle University, where she studied Computer Science alongside her sporting endeavours.
Bruce is excited for the season ahead and ready to fly the Philippine flag in 2024, following an intense two weeks at Q-School.
Hailing from Makati City in the Manilla region, the 23-year-old will follow in the footsteps of Mary Estuesta and Mia Piccio this season after finishing T27 at Lalla Aicha Marrakech Q-School to earn Category 16 status.
"I started playing golf when I was eight years old. The funny thing is that I started playing because of my elder sister. I never knew what golf was; I just started tagging along because of her. A few months later, I started getting the hang of it and I’ve been hooked ever since."
"I played a little basketball before but I was never really committed. In the Philippines, it was really hard to play multiple sports.
"When I was about 13 years old I had to commit to golf and I’m really happy that I did. It’s taken me far," Bruce expounded in an interview with LET media.
Bruce reveals that it took her a while to realise that golf was what she wanted to do.
"I fully committed to it when I got to college, where I had the freedom to practice and be at a different level of competition.
"The environment at college allowed me to do that. I studied computer science so it was difficult to manage! But Seattle was a great environment for me," she explained.
Bruce has played her golf virtually "everywhere" and her debut in Kenya presents another exciting moment of her promising career.
"I played in the US a lot over the summers and when I was 13, I started playing for the national team. We played all over Asia and after that in a lot of AJGA and USGA events'" Bruce revealed to LET media.
LET will return to the picturesque Vipingo Ridge PGA Baobab course for the fourth time and as is the norm, the Kenyan showpiece is sure to treat fans to some exhilarating displays of golfing artistry.
Just as last year, the 2024 season will revisit North Coast's Vipingo atmosphere with the crème de la crème of LET, rookies, past champions and selected top local golfers returning to the PGA-accredited course for one the most popular legs on the schedule.
Slated for February 8-11, the MKLO has attracted some of LET's finest golfers including India’s Aditi Ashok who won the Kenyan leg last year, ending Germany's Esther Henseleit's two-year dominance.
The year 2024 promises to be yet another exciting year on LET as the circuit prepares to stage 31 events across five continents for a total prize fund of over €34 million
After a one-year hiatus, the LET will be returning to Australia in 2024 for two unique events on the schedule.
From March 29-31, the circuit heads to Magenta Shores Golf & Country Club in New South Wales for the NSW Women’s Open —an event previously won by Solheim Cup star Maja Stark and England’s Meghan MacLaren.