Helen Briem doesn’t have a picture on the LPGA leaderboard, but the 19-year-old German is undoubtedly a can’t-miss player.
Standing over 6 feet tall, the statuesque Briem carded a 4-under 67 in the opening round of her major debut at the Amundi Evian Championship. Briem trails clubhouse leaders Leona Maguire, Gabriela Ruffels and Andrea Lee by two strokes.
“I think it’s just beautiful over here,” said Briem. “I love the mountains. I love being in the mountains.”
Briem won her first Ladies European Tour event, the 2024 La Sella Open, in her first start on the LET as a professional. She’s been on a heater of late in her first full season on the LET, with four consecutive top-5 finishes dating back to the Jabra Ladies Open, also held at Evian Golf Resort, where she tied for fifth.
She finished runner-up at the Amundi German Masters and Tenerife Women’s Open and currently ranks 74th in the world.
“Four years ago, when I played my first Junior Solheim Cup, I took pictures with many players that I am playing today with,” said Briem, “so, yeah, that’s just amazing to see those steps I took the last four years.”
Briem could be a Solheim Cup candidate
World No. 1 Nelly Korda and her sister Jessica, who is in Evian this week as an on-course commentator, were two of the players Briem took photos with in Ohio. She ran into both earlier this week. There’s no doubt that European Solheim Cup Anna Nordqvist has her eye on Briem heading into the 2026 Solheim Cup in the Netherlands.
Briem’s history-making amateur career included a 12-and-10 victory in the final of the 2023 R&A Girls’ Amateur, where she became the first German to win the championship in the event’s 104-year history.
At the 2022 Women’s World Amateur Team Championship, Briem took a share of medalist honors at Le Golf National in Paris with Rose Zhang and Meja Ortengren, though no official title or medal was given for individual results.
Last year, while still an amateur, Briem tied for 11th at the Amundi German Masters and finished runner-up at the Dormy Open Helsingborg to Perrine Delacour on the LET. She then rattled off three consecutive victories on the LET Access Series, a developmental tour. After winning the European Ladies’ Team Championship in July, she became the first German to rise to No. 1 in the World Amateur Golf Ranking. Only she didn’t stay there very long, choosing to immediately turn professional.
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