Scottish-born Karis Davidson secures 2023 LPGA Tour card with Holly Clyburn's help

Borders-born Karis Davidson will be playing on the LPGA Tour for the second season in a row in 2023 after successfully negotiating the circuit’s marathon Q-Series with the help of former Curtis Cup player Holly Clyburn.

Borders-born Karis Davidson celebrates securing her LPGA Tour card for next season with her caddie in the circuit's Q-Series, former Curtis Cup player Holly Clyburn.

Davidson, who is now an Australian citizen after emigrating there with her parents, Graeme and Faye, and younger brother Zak, was among 46 players to secure full status for the new LPGA Tour campaign at the end of an eight-round test in Alabama.

Finishing with a birdie, the 24-year-old closed with a two-under 70 at Highland Oaks in Dothan for a 14-under total, which left her three shots inside the cut-off mark in a tie for 28th.

“Just really pleased. Quite relieved, yeah,” said Davidson, who made the cut in eight out of 11 starts after passing the same test 12 months ago along with Gemma Dryburgh but came up just short of hanging on to her card.

“I don't even know how to feel right now,” she added. “I've had a pretty hectic year mentally, so this is quite a relief to finish on a high.”

Clyburn, who played on the winning Great Britain & Ireland team in the 2012 Curtis Cup at Nairn before winning his first event as a pro on the LET the following year, was on Davidson’s bag in the event.

“She's been great,” said Davidson of the bubbly Englishwoman. “She has been cooking my meals and mothering me. You kind of want someone that's going to look after you these couple weeks because, if you did it yourself, it would be really tough.”

In a post on social media, Clyburn praised Davidson for being “back where she belongs” on the LPGA Tour and added that she’d “loved being next to you for the ride, it was great.”

Davidson, who turned professional in 2016, cut her professional teeth on the Japanese circuit and admitted she’d enjoyed seeing Dryburgh make her LPGA Tour breakthrough in the TOTO Japan Classic early last month.

“Yeah, when Gemma won, I was really chuffed for her and also because I used to play there,” she said.