Laetitia Beck

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

In May 2005, at the age of 13, she won the Israel Open Golf Championship for the second year in a row.

Seven months later, she made a hole-in-one on the first day of the Doral Open in Florida.

In 2008, she was again Israeli women's champion and won the 2008 Rolex Israel Open Championship.

Beck 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).

That year, she was also chosen as one of Israel's sportswomen of the decade, by Israel's Culture and Sport Ministry.

She also won gold medals in golf in both the 2009 and 2013 Maccabiah Games.

In 2009, at the age of 17 Beck finished in second place at the Duke of York Young Champions Trophy in Scotland, one stroke behind the winner.

That year, she also won the Israel Junior and Ladies Championships and the 2009 Doral Publix Junior Classic (with a 7-under-par 54-hole total of 209).

Beck attended Duke University from 2010–2014, where she played golf for the Blue Devils.

She graduated in 2010.

Beck resides in Caesarea, Israel.

When she reached 18 years of age, she was enlisted in the Israel Defense Forces and completed her required military exams.

But the army designated her to a sports prodigy status, and postponed her military service until after she finishes her education in the U.S.

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.

She noted: "When I play golf I'm very proud to represent Israel. My goal is to represent Israel and the Jewish people."

Beck won her first Israeli Ladies Championship at the age of 12, at the Israel Open Golf Tournament.

Beck won the 2010 Verizon Junior Heritage by two shots with rounds of 73 and 74 in Hilton Head Island, South Carolina.

She was named Golfweek's Player of the Week on February 8, 2010.

Later in February she took second place at the Annika Invitational.

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.

In June she won the Caesarea Junior Golf Championship.

Beck attended Duke University on a golf scholarship from 2010–2014, and majored in psychology.

She played for the Duke Blue Devils beginning with the 2010–11 campaign.

Duke's coach described her as "a very hard worker" who "has a beautiful, powerful golf swing."

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.

In 2011, she was voted the Atlantic Coast Conference Rookie of the Year, in 2013 and 2014 she was an All-American, and for her college career she had a 73.58 stroke average (10th-best in school history).

She made her professional debut at the 2014 Women's British Open.

Beck has won the Israeli Open Golf Championship five times, including for the first time when she was 12 years of age.

She is the first Israeli to compete in an LPGA Tour event, and in December 2014 became the first Israeli to qualify as a fully-fledged PGA or LPGA Tour player.

Beck competed for Israel at the 2016 Summer Olympics.

Beck was born in Antwerp, Belgium.

She is Jewish, and keeps kosher, on and off the road.

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).

Beck and her family immigrated to Caesarea, Israel, an affluent town midway between the cities of 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.

She began playing golf there at the Caesarea Golf Academy when she was nine years old.

She excelled in both golf and tennis when she was young.

Looking for tougher competition in golf, Beck left for the United States as a teenager.

For high school, starting at the age of 14 she attended the IMG Pendleton School in Bradenton, Florida.