Ana Dawson made a promising start to her professional career with a strong performance at the Magical Kenya Ladies Open in Mombasa last week.

Despite being one of the lower rated players in the field, the former Isle of Man golf champion defied the rankings and showed the same grit and determination that carried her through Q-School.

By doing so, she overcame a shaky start and made the two-day cut, ensuring that she played all four rounds in her first Ladies European Tour (LET) event.

For comparison, former world number one and US Open champion Justin Rose took 16 events to make his first cut.

Last week’s event was a great introduction to life on tour for the Peel golfer, as the travel and flights for the 22-hour trip from UK to Kenya meant that she arrived virtually in the middle of the night.

As well as acclimatising to the heat and humidity of the Kenyan weather, she had to reset her body clock and alter her preparation regime to fit in with the tour schedule, including the practice round constraints and still ensure that she was fit and ready to tee it up a few days later.

On top of a challenging course, another thing that the players had to contend with was the wildlife on the fairways. It’s clearly not in the Peel Golf Club local rules as to whether you get a free drop from a zebra!

After a scrappy first nine holes, there was a real risk of a premature end to Ana’s participation in her first event. But she displayed the sort of resilience that secured her victory in the international Faldo Series and saw her through Q-School to play a solid second nine on day one.

Dawson shot level par on day two – one of the best rounds of the day – to ensure that she qualified for the final two days and was guaranteed a paycheck for her efforts.

Another fine 18 holes on the last day saw Ana finish narrowly outside the top 50, but with some really valuable experience to take forward to the rest of the season.

Speaking afterwards, she commented: ‘Rolling in a 60-foot putt for par on the 18th hole to make the cut in my European tour debut is something I don’t think I’ll ever forget!

‘It was an amazing experience and I already can’t wait for my next event to try and improve on this result.’

Ana’s next outing will either be in South Africa or in Spain at the start of March, depending on entries.