“I haven’t played golf since December. I needed a little break from golf and focused on Sean, family, team, partners, and friends. I started training in January in South Carolina, Florida, and in early February in Spain. Even though it’s been almost two months without competitive golf, it went by very quickly. I am looking forward to the season even more now. In Riyadh, I will not even play the classic pro-am, so I have three days to carefully go through the local eighteen-hole and take it easy in the training,” Spilková said upon arrival in Riyadh from Saudi Arabia.

According to the plan, this year the Czech professional is to play more tournaments than in any previous season. She has marked 21 dates in her calendar from February to December, with a possibility of another four events. The main goal of the season for her, however, remains participation at the Olympic tournament at Le Golf National in Paris this August, which means starting among the top 60 nominated players in the world for the third time in a row.

“The highlight of the season is, of course, the Olympic tournament in Paris. Fortunately, we have two weeks off before the event, which is great since the whole summer will be extremely busy. I will not have much time to rest both before Paris and after it, so it won’t be easy. At least these Olympic games are held in Europe, and not on the other side of the planet in Brazil or Japan. This will help us all a lot as we won’t have to deal with acclimatization or jet lag. But it’s not just about the Olympics this year. I have some other secret wishes and goals, such as the Solheim Cup, returning to the top 100 in the world rankings, or winning a third title on the Ladies European Tour. I will try and do my best for that, and maybe some of them will come true. It’s a long-term process, not just a single result, that you sometimes can’t even influence,” the player described her plans.

Davidson Spilková will have a similar sharp start to the season just like last year. She will start the season in Saudi Arabia at the Aramco Ladies International, which will take place from Thursday, 15 February to Sunday, 18 February 2024. The interesting part will be not only the starting field of 120 players but also the financial rewards for the most successful ones. The tournament, sponsored by the domestic oil giant Aramco, has a prize pool of exactly five million US dollars. The winning team from last year’s tournament remains unchanged, and alongside Davidson Spilková, her husband Sean will again appear.

“Everything stays the same in the team, and I’m very happy about that. Perhaps the only complication is that Sean cannot be my caddie for the whole year. He has his duties at the university and won’t have as much time to travel with me. In Morocco, Eva Koželuhová will replace him, and in Florida, someone from the local pros, and he won’t come with me to Australia either. Sean will rejoin me in June and then stay with me throughout the busy summer, including the Olympics. Despite, I believe he will caddy for me at at least half of the planned tournaments,” Davidson Spilková confirmed the composition of last year’s successful team.

Australia appears newly in her plans this year, and she will most likely skip two tournaments in South Africa. Since Sunday, when she flew to Riyadh, she will travel to four continents until early April.

“I have always liked Australia, and after last year’s experience in South Africa, I will prefer down under. This is not to say that I will exclude Africa altogether. It is not final, and we’ll see how I play at the tournaments. So I leave my participation in the April tournaments in Johannesburg and Cape Town still open. Anyway, I am looking forward to the tournaments in the southern hemisphere. If I don’t fly back to Africa, I will be home in April, at a charity tournament for the Alsa Association at my home course, PGA National in Nebřenice, and then, of course, in June in Beroun. That will already be my favourite part of the season when I will travel throughout Europe in my beloved Volvo. It’s nice to discover new distant places, but I always feel best in front of the home crowd,” Davidson Spilková confirmed the tournament calendar.

From the start of the season, Davidson Spilková plans to attend five tournaments, which will take her to the Middle East, Africa, North America and Australia. She will only return to the Czech Republic on 7 April, when she will have the first of the planned Olympic training camps immediately on Monday after arrival, followed by the Alsa charity event at her home course, PGA National Czech Republic. The Czech golf professional will start off the second part of the season in Europe at the Amundi German Masters, played in Germany from 16 May 2024.

Klára Davidson Spilková’s tournament schedule:

15-18 February 2024             Aramco Ladies International, Riyadh, Saudi Arabia

22-24 February 2024             Lalla Meryem Cup, Rabat, Morocco

8-10 March 2024                    Aramco Team Series, Clearwater, Florida, United States

29-31 March 2024                  NSW Women’s Open, New South Wales, Australia

5-7 April 2024                         Australian Women’s Classic, Bonville, Australia

Photo: Tristan Jones and Mark Runnacles / LET (2023)