Secret wish helps turn Taylor into champion

She may not have made quite the same splash as Anita Ekberg in the film La Dolce Vita, but throwing a coin into the Trevi Fountain in Rome proved an inspired move by golfer Amy Taylor.

Just days later, she was lifting the Italian Open trophy following the first win of her career on the Ladies European Tour.

"That was just superstition - everyone goes to the fountain and throws a coin in," the 23-year-old from Norfolk told BBC Look East.

"One of my friends lent me 20p - I don't know if it was because I chucked a bit more money in than normal, but I made a wish to win an LET event.

"I didn't tell anyone about it because if you tell anyone it doesn't usually come true.

"I kept it to myself and revealed it in my speech after I'd won. But it was definitely a magical feeling that came with that."

Although she had finished fourth in an LET access event the week before, the victory still came out of the blue for Taylor, who had not managed a top-20 finish on the main tour in the early part of the year.

She said: "My game was starting to trend towards where I wanted it to be. I still arrived on site in Italy with a few things I wanted to work on but sometimes things just click in golf and it was just one of those weeks for me.

"It was very overwhelming, it took a couple of days to sink in. It was a really amazing feeling, I'm just so happy to have done it. It really changed my season."

Taylor began playing as a nine-year-old at Bawburgh Golf Club near Norwich and five years later became the youngest winner of the Ladies' County Championship title.

For the next step towards achieving her dream of becoming a professional, though, she decided to follow the US collegiate route at Texas Tech University.

"Going to college was the best thing. It really prepared me well for life on tour," she said.

"You get used to travelling and sorting out accommodation, stuff like that, and you're playing against some of the best amateur players in the world, which really does prepare you well for the transition to professional golf.

"For me, going to America is the best choice. It's definitely becoming more popular, the facilities they have out there are next level and I think the money they throw at sport is crazy. We don't really have anything like it in the UK so if the opportunity of America presents itself, you can't pass it up really.

"I did half a year on the access in 2022 and this is my second full year on the LET. Going to college prepared me well for it. Had I not done that, I'd have struggled more with homesickness."

Following her maiden LET win a couple of weekends ago, Taylor is now back in England for the Aramco Team Series event at Centurion Golf Club in Hertfordshire.

And she is hoping that work done on her game last winter will continue to pay off with more positive results through the remainder of 2024.

She added: "I worked on quite a lot with my coach in the off season, we focused on specifics that I wasn't as strong on as I felt I should be and (before Italy) I was seeing improvements in those statistics, but not necessarily in the scores themselves.

"I just tried to take confidence from that. I came into the week feeling good and everything kind of fell together which doesn't always happen.

"There's definitely more eyes on me. But my goals remain the same. I just want to try and improve every day.

"I definitely feel more confident when I turn up to events. Just knowing I can compete gives me more confidence in my game, more confidence in myself.

"It's hard to have confidence without the results, so getting the win really helped."