What Ever Happened to Sophie Sandolo of Big Break Ka'anapali?
Today, Sandolo still has status as a member of the Ladies European Tour, just as she did when Big Break Ka'anapali hit the airwaves so many years ago.
Sandolo's Big Break Ka'anapali Finish
We'll provide a few more details below about Sandolo's whereabouts in the years since her season of The Big Break aired. But first, let's look back at how she got to Big Break Ka'anapali, and how she fared on the show.Sandolo was born in France, but has always played under the Italian flag. She played college golf in the United States at UCLA and was an All-American in 1996-97. After winning the 1999 European Amateur Championship, Sandolo turned pro later that year. The year 2000 was her rookie year on the LET.
In 2005, Sandolo had her career-best finish on the LET money list, 15th, and her career-best finish in an LET tournament, second at the Catalonia Ladies Masters. Sandolo also had her best finish in a major that year, 22nd at the 2005 Women's British Open. She won the Lalla Meryem Cup in 2006, but that tournament was not yet part of the LET at that time.
In late 2007, Sandolo was announced as a cast member on Big Break Ka'anapali. She was 31 years old at the time of taping, and she was probably the most-famous golfer to take part in a Big Break season to that point. And not because of her golf, but because she was also a model who (being European, where they don't have many hangups about nudity as Americans do) sometimes posed nude. In fact, Sandolo, throughout the first decade of the 2000s, released a series of calendars that included semi-nude poses.
Big Break Ka'anapali began airing on April 15, 2008. When the final episode aired, it featurd the championship match between Sandolo and Kim Welch, a match that Welch won, 4 and 3.
Related: What ever happened to Kim Welch of Big Break Ka'anapali?
Where Sophie Sandolo Is Today
Sophie Sandolo today is in Monaco, where she has lived since the late 1990s. There she is deeply involved in the regional golf scene as both an organizer/promoter and a player. She also is a competitive sailor, taking part in races through the Monaco Yacht Club.In the years since Big Break Ka'anapali aired, Sandolo has continued playing tournament golf, mostly on the Ladies European Tour but also on the LET Access Series. Her career has been interrupted several times by injuries, however.
Sandolo has never won on the Ladies European Tour, but has posted 21 Top 10 finishes in 235 career starts as of the year 2020. She has not played any LET tournaments since the 2017 season, but with so many years on tour Sandolo still, entering the 2020 year, ranked 11th on the LET's career money list with nearly €500,000 in earnings.
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