There's something that's both endearing and very refreshing about watching Frenchwoman Agathe Laisne go about her business on a golf course.
Laisne has dazzled us with her golf over the past three weeks; her first three weeks ever in Australia - claiming victory at the Women's NSW Open in Wollongong and running one of the world's elite in Hannah Green to the wire at last week's Australian Open at Kooyonga. She has done so in her own, unique way, eschewing a full-time caddie in favour of locals each week and doing all her own yardages and course analysis.
She even takes a handful of clubs over to her ball, as if playing with a "carts on paths" rule in a local competition somewhere.
"I've been using a lot of local caddies and trying to figure things out for myself," Laisne said. "I've talked to my coach and he agreed and it's kind of been working out."
On course, her face has shown an intensity and dogged determination that quickly subsides to a broad smile and languid fist pump after a chip-in or holed putt, of which there have been many. It's certainly been a fun watch.
Add up her three weeks of work and she's currently sitting atop the Ladies European Tour Order of Merit by a decent margin from Australia's Kelsey Bennett. How long that lasts will have a lot to do with how she and her nearest pursuers, Bennett and Casandra Alexander, fare this week at the Australian WPGA Championship at Sanctuary Cove on Queensland's Gold Coast.
I must admit that I haven't fully committed the plot details of the 1984 movie Paris, Texas to memory, but its focus in the beginning is around a man wandering out of the desert, not knowing where he's been or what his future holds. The references to Paris, Laisne's hometown, and Texas, where she went to college, likely mark the beginning and end of the similarities between her career circumstances and those of the wandering lead.
However, prior to this month, there may actually have been just the slightest, tenuous link to that man in the desert, without a clear knowledge of how her longer-term future might play out professionally. However, clarity would soon be hers after a withering back nine run, where she caught and passed teen sensation Soomin Oh over the final holes in Wollongong, without having a single clue as to her leaderboard position until the final green.
The victory provided her with two years of job security via an LET exemption - a luxury she hadn't known in her five-year professional career. Throw in a spot in the AIG Women's Open at Royal Lytham and St Annes and it's fair to say the month of March Down Under could not have started any better.
"I've been playing well and I knew it could come at any time," Laisne said. "It's not changing my whole life, but I'm happy with how it's turned out, because I've been working hard on my game for a couple of years.
"I played in the 2017 Women's Open because I won the European Amateur that year, so I will be excited to go back. I missed the cut last time, but I'll go better this year!"
"The exemption helps that I have a year of planning and know that I will be in all of the events. I missed out on the PIF Saudi International this year, so I'll be pretty happy now to not miss out on any tournaments I want to play."
With a bucket list goal of visiting every country on Earth at least once, the Parisien has journeyed to just about all corners of the globe to ply her trade. She has had success on the LET Access Tour (LETAS) and the LPGA's secondary Epson Tour, where she played a full year in 2025, finishing 20th on the Money List. She has successfully qualified from not one, but five Qualifying Schools for the LET and LPGA, graduating twice to the latter, but losing her card each time.
"Yes, lots of Q Schools," she laughed, "Even if you're down, you have to work hard and keep thinking positively. You have to do everything you can so that you have no regrets later on."
In terms of this week, Laisne said the Palms course at Sanctuary Cove 'looks a lot like Florida', which for the field is somewhat ominous, given she's also tasted success there with a win on the Epson Tour in 2023.
And what of her local caddie this week? "My trolley," she smiled, gesturing to the pull cart.
We might not have seen an Order of Merit leader quite like her.
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