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‘No immediate plans to retire’

DUBAI – Laura Davies has dismissed any notions of imminent retirement ahead of Wednesday’s Omega Dubai Ladies Masters, pledging to carry on until she loses her competitive edge.

The 47-year-old Englishwoman continually fields questions about her longevity – both in terms of her driving and career – after every tournament win nowadays.

But – citing Tom Watson’s challenge for the 2009 Open Championship – Davies fully intends to keep playing for a fair few more years yet, with her ability and appetite for success still intact.

“Tom Watson nearly won the men’s Open at 59, so maybe I’ll have another 14 years,” said the 20-time LPGA event winner, who is aiming to topple South Africa’s Lee-Anne Pace from the Henderson Money List summit at the Emirates Golf Club’s Majlis course.

“I have no plans to stop playing. If I’m competitive, then I don’t really want to do anything else. I love playing golf and travelling the world. The trips I’ve been on over the last two months have been incredible.

“I couldn’t do that in any other walk of life as all I’m good at is golf. It affords me the privilege of going around the world and playing, so I really don’t want to stop anytime soon.”

Davies also sees no physical impediment to prolonging her illustrious career towards pensionable age either, as the sport doesn’t have the time restraints of other disciplines like athletics.

“I’ve always said: ‘If you can walk, you can play golf.’ It’s not like you have to be running the 100m in nine seconds,” the Coventry-born putter explained.

“You just walk around the golf course and I really don’t see it ending. Whenever I end up winning a tournament, people say: ‘Right, you’re retiring’ and I’m like: ‘I’ve just won a tournament, why would I retire?’

“I use Tom as the milestone now and, if he can beat those players at 59, I don’t see why I shouldn’t be able to play at 55 or 56.

“Who knows? I may not be playing well enough then and, as soon as I am, you won’t see me.

“You’ll hopefully see me doing something in the media maybe after that, but I’m certainly not going to be playing.”

For now though, Davies is still another Major victory or two LPGA competition victories away from being inducted into the association’s Hall of Fame.

That is only an intermittent consideration, even if it would clearly mean a lot, with Davies adding:

“I promised my dad five or six years ago I would do it one day. He lived in America most of his life and the Hall of Fame is very important to him because he obviously travelled the Tour with me in the early days in 1998, when I went to America and joined the Tour.

“So, I said I would keep going for that and I can do it. But, if I don’t, it won’t ruin my career. I’ve had so much fun and that would literally be the icing on the cake.

“However, until I win a major or one more regular tournament, there’s no real point talking about it as far as I’m concerned.

“I have four cracks at it in the majors next year to get in, or – if I win say the first tournament of 2011 – every other one then becomes more important.

“Nonetheless, until I get to the point where a win gets me in the Hall of Fame, it doesn’t affect me.”

alex@khaleejtimes.com