Thirteen years after nearly dying when she was hit by a drunken driver, German golfer Leonie Harm won her first professional title on the Ladies European Tour — on home soil, too.
Harm birdied her last two holes to win the German Masters on Sunday for a belated golfing breakthrough that seemed destined not to happen in 2013 when she went for an early-morning run before school.
As she crossed the street near her home, Harm — aged 15 at the time and a highly rated junior in European golf — was hit by a car being driven at 45 miles per hour by a woman who had been drinking alcohol.
Harm said she suffered collapsed lungs, a skull fracture and had hematomas in her brain, while she also broke her ribs, hip and ankle and sustained a damaged left ear. She was put in a medically induced coma, with doctors unsure if she’d be able to walk again.
It’s why Harm spoke after her maiden win about showing “resilience” in the tough times in her life, which included losing her mother to cancer soon after starting to study biochemistry at the University of Houston and then nearly quitting professional golf at the end of 2024.
“I believe right now I’m in a good spot mentally,” Harm told the LET, “and for it to then be paired with success in golf is such a great feeling because I didn’t have to be miserable. I could’ve been happy this whole time and it would have worked with a lot of the times where you get impatient and to be more forgiving to yourself.
“A good takeaway there is to be your own best friend eventually and hopefully then be successful in working with yourself rather than against it, which I’ve done for probably most of my life.”
The 28-year-old Harm, who went into the German Masters ranked No. 250 in the world, was especially happy to have won her first title in an event in her home country.
“So many people came out to support,” she said, “and that just means a lot.”
The Associated Press contributed to this report.