| Virginia Elena Carta | |||
|---|---|---|---|
| Personal information | |||
| Born | (1996-12-24)24 December 1996 (age 28) Milan,Italy | ||
| Height | 5 ft 5 in (1.65 m) | ||
| Sporting nationality |  Italy | ||
| Career | |||
| College | Duke University Cambridge University | ||
| Turned professional | 2021 | ||
| Current tour(s) | Ladies European Tour (joined 2022) | ||
| Best results in LPGA major championships | |||
| Chevron Championship | DNP | ||
| Women's PGA C'ship | DNP | ||
| U.S. Women's Open | CUT: 2017 | ||
| Women's British Open | DNP | ||
| Evian Championship | DNP | ||
| Achievements and awards | |||
| |||
Medal record | |||
Virginia Elena Carta (born 24 December 1996) is an Italianprofessional golfer who plays on theLadies European Tour. She won the2016 NCAA Women's Championship individually and received theHonda Sports Award.
Carta was born inMilan on Christmas Eve in 1996 and grew up inUdine, Italy, where she was introduced to golf by her mother at a young age.[1]
She became a member of the Italian National Team in 2010, and won the 2012European Young Masters in a team withRenato Paratore. She won silver at the 2014European Girls' Team Championship in Slovakia, and at the2014 Summer Youth Olympics in Nanjing she finished T4 individually and won themixed team bronze withRenato Paratore.
Carta was successful in tournaments across Europe and won the Austrian International Amateur,German Girls Open, Slovenian Amateur Championship,French International Lady Juniors Amateur Championship and theFrench International Ladies Amateur Championship.[2]
She played in bothAnnika Invitational Europe and Annika Invitational USA, and recruitedAnnika Sörenstam as her mentor.[1]
In 2015, she accepted a golf scholarship toDuke University. As a freshman, she won the 2016NCAA Women's Championship individually with an NCAA record score of 272 (−16), and won the 2016Honda Sports Award as Player of the Year nationally.[3] She fell toSeong Eun-jeong in the final of the 2016U.S. Women's Amateur, 1 up. Invited to play the 2016 LPGAMarathon Classic she made the cut, but missed the cut in the2017 U.S. Women's Open.
Carta battled injury during the 2016–17 and 2017-18 academic years, and won only the 2017 The Landfall Tradition, before winning the 2019NCAA Women's Championship with theDuke Blue Devils women's golf team.[4] She is one of only 20 golfers in NCAA history, male or female, to win both an NCAA Individual and team championship.[5]
After graduating from Duke in 2019, Carta made the unusual decision to defer qualifying for theLPGA Tour for a year, instead opting to do a Master's degree in Environmental Policy atCambridge University, England. She planned to enter LPGA Q-School in 2020, which was cancelled due to theCOVID-19 pandemic, leaving her without tour status.[6]
Carta turned professional in 2021 and received six invitations to events on theLadies European Tour. She missed the cut at her first event as a professional, theLadies Italian Open, but soon finished tied 5th at theVP Bank Swiss Ladies Open and tied 6th at theLacoste Ladies Open de France. She finished T19 at LET Q-School in December to secure full playing rights for the 2022 season.[7]
In 2022, she held a two-stroke lead at theSantander Golf Tour Málaga ahead of the final day, but produced a final round of 72 to finish runner-up, a stroke behindSára Kousková.[8] She finished 4th individually atAramco Team Series - Jeddah and 5th in theLET Rookie of the Year rankings, won byLinn Grant.
Her best finish in 2023 was a tie for 4th at theJabra Ladies Open. The same was true for 2024, where she tied for 4th atLacoste Ladies Open de France and at theWistron Ladies Open inTaiwan. She was the second highest ranked Italian golfer in theWomen's World Golf Rankings and was the 4th reserve for the2024 Summer Olympics, narrowly missing out on joining compatriotAlessandra Fanali in Paris.[9]
Source:[2]
Amateur
Source:[2]
