Australia's Steph Kyriacou has won the prestigious rookie of the year award on the Ladies European Tour. Kyriacou, 20, who is at home in Sydney quarantining in a hotel after her sojourn to Europe and most recently Saudi Arabia, won the award comfortably although by not playing the Spanish Open over the weekend, left open the chance that she would be overhauled. Her nearest competitors, England's Alice Hewson and Argentina's Magdalina Simmermacher, both failed to secure the victory that they would have needed to change the result. Kyriacou, who hails from St Michael's Golf Club, was one of Australia's top amateurs and exploded on to the professional scene when she won the Bonville Ladies Classic on the LET in Febuary while still an amateur. This gave her playing rights in Europe but interestingly, the points did not count towards rookie of the year honors because she was not an LET member at the time of winning the tournament. She turned professional, set off with her father Nick as caddie and promptly logged five top-10 finishes in nine tournaments in various parts of the world. Her last round was a stunning 63 to finish second in the Saudi Ladies International. Kyriacou actually ranked third on the tour's Race to Costa del Sol points race behind the dominant Dane Emily Kristine Pedersen and Sweden's Julia Engstrom across the season. "It's been a pretty good year for me, considering, with Covid the way it worked out," she told Inside The Ropes, Golf Australia's podcast, last week. "At the beginning of the year I was still an amateur waiting to go to Q-school in August. So that all flipped around."

Hear Steph Kyriacou on her year in Europe

LET rookies of the year

2020 — Steph Kyriacou 2019 — Esther Henseleit 2018 — Julia Engstrom 2017 — Camille Chevalier 2016 — Aditi Ashok 2015 — Emily Kristine Pedersen 2014 — Amy Boulden 2013 — Charley Hull 2012 — Carlota Ciganda 2011 — Caroline Hedwall 2010 — I.K. Kim 2009 — Anna Nordqvist 2008 — Melissa Reid 2007 — Louise Stahle 2006 — Nikki Garrett 2005 — Elisa Serramia 2004 — Minea Blomqvist 2003 — Rebecca Stevenson 2002 — Kirsty Taylor 2001 — Suzann Pettersen 2000 — Giulia Sergas 1999 — Elaine Ratcliffe 1998 — Laura Philo (Diaz) 1997 — Anna Berg 1996 — Anne Marie Knight 1995 — Karrie Webb 1994 — Tracy Hanson 1993 — Annika Sorenstam 1992 — Sandrine Mendiburu 1991 — Helen Wadsworth 1990 — Pearl Sinn 1989 — Helen Alfredsson 1988 — Laurette Maritz 1987 — Trish Johnson 1986 — Patricia Gonzalez 1985 — Laura Davies 1984 — Kitrina Douglas