Staff WriterLa Sella Open has found a rather elegant way of making sure its champions do not simply vanish into the record books with a trophy photograph, a handshake and the faint smell of champagne on a Sunday evening. At La Sella Golf’s Championship Course, victory now comes with roots.
The tournament has formally introduced The Forest of Champions, a permanent space between the 10th green and the 11th tee, where each winner is recognised with a tree from her home country. It is part honour board, part living archive, and part quiet reminder that sport, at its best, should leave something behind other than divots and sponsor lanyards.
For a championship still building its place on the international women’s golf calendar, it is a smart piece of identity-making. Not loud. Not gimmicky. Not another oversized installation designed to be photographed once and ignored forever. This one grows.
A Living Tribute Beside The Championship Course
The Forest of Champions began with a symbolic gesture during the previous edition of the tournament, but it has now been given a defined location and a recognisable identity of its own.
The idea is simple enough to avoid committee-room suffocation: each La Sella Open champion has a tree planted in her honour, with that tree coming from the player’s home country. Each one marks a win, certainly, but also a chapter in a tournament that wants to build memory as deliberately as it builds leaderboards.
At present, the forest consists of three trees. Granted, that is not quite Sherwood. But every great sporting tradition begins somewhere, usually with one decent idea and a few people sensible enough not to overcomplicate it.
Those first three trees honour Nuria Iturrioz, Helen Briem and Anna Huang, the opening trio of La Sella Open champions.
The First Three Champions Now Have Roots
Nuria Iturrioz, the first champion of La Sella Open, is represented by a Spanish tree, Quercus Ilex. Helen Briem, champion in 2024, has a German tree, Acer Campestre. Anna Huang, the reigning champion following the 2025 edition, is represented by a Canadian tree, Acer Freemanii.
Placed between the 10th green and 11th tee, the space is already becoming part of the course’s emotional geography. That matters. Golf courses are built on memory as much as turf: the bunker you should have avoided, the putt you still swear broke the other way, the walk from green to tee when a round begins to change shape.
Now, La Sella Golf has a place where the tournament’s past can be seen, revisited and quietly added to year after year.
“It is very special to be part of the history of La Sella Open from its very first edition. Knowing that my tree is here is a beautiful way to remember that victory and to leave a small mark on the tournament,” said Nuria Iturrioz, the first champion of La Sella Open.
Sport, Nature And Memory In One Neat Idea
Golf can sometimes talk about legacy with the subtlety of a brass band falling down a staircase. Here, though, La Sella Open has landed on something more restrained and more persuasive.
The Forest of Champions links sporting achievement with nature, continuity and place. A win becomes more than a name on a board. It becomes something visible, seasonal and alive.
For Helen Briem, that connection is central to the appeal.
“The Forest of Champions is a beautiful initiative because it connects each victory with something that remains. For me, it is a source of pride to have a tree representing Germany at La Sella and to be part of this legacy alongside the other champions.”
That is the strength of the idea. It does not try to inflate a golf tournament into a grand philosophical event. It simply gives each champion a physical marker and allows the meaning to do its own work.
Anna Huang Adds A Canadian Branch To The Story
Following the 2025 edition, Anna Huang joined the La Sella Open roll of honour and with her came the planting of a Canadian tree.
For a reigning champion, the gesture adds a second layer to the memory of winning. Trophies travel, photographs date, and leaderboards are eventually filed away. A tree stays where the victory happened.
“Winning La Sella Open was a very important moment for me, and having a Canadian tree in The Forest of Champions now makes it even more special. It is a living memory of that week and a very emotional way to be part of the tournament’s history,” said the reigning champion.
That is exactly the sort of detail that gives a tournament personality. Fans remember winners. Players remember weeks. Venues remember moments. This initiative gives all three somewhere to meet.
Carlos García On Building Something That Lasts
For Carlos García, president of La Sella Golf, the project is about permanence as much as celebration.
“With the Forest of Champions, we wanted to create something that would endure over time, beyond the result of each edition. Each champion leaves a real, visible and living mark here, also linked to her home country. It is a very special way to celebrate the players who are writing the history of La Sella Open,” said Carlos García, president of La Sella Golf.
It also strengthens the tournament’s connection with its natural surroundings. In an era when golf is rightly asked to think harder about sustainability, land use and environmental responsibility, there is value in gestures that are tangible rather than merely decorative.
A planted tree does not solve the sport’s largest environmental questions, and nor should anyone pretend it does. But as a symbol of growth, roots and continuity, it fits neatly with a championship trying to shape its own character.
The Champion’s Letter Adds A Private Touch
Alongside The Forest of Champions, La Sella Open has also introduced another tradition with a more intimate feel: The Champion’s Letter.
After winning the tournament, each champion writes a letter to the winner of the following edition. Anna Huang, after her 2025 victory, wrote her message for the future 2026 champion. It remains sealed and will be opened and read by the next winner of La Sella Open.
Once the 2026 edition concludes, that champion will write a new letter for the following year’s winner, continuing the chain.
It is a lovely idea because it avoids spectacle. No fireworks. No forced emotion. Just one champion leaving a few words for the next, woman to woman, competitor to competitor, with the trophy acting almost as a baton.
“We like to think that each champion receives not only a trophy, but also a welcome from the player who came before her. The Champion’s Letter adds an intimate and emotional dimension to the tournament, connecting the winners in a very personal way,” added Carlos.
A Tournament Finding Its Own Voice
The best sporting traditions rarely arrive fully formed. They gather weight with repetition. The first year is a gesture. The third becomes a pattern. Give it a decade and suddenly people talk about it as though it has always been there.
That is the opportunity for La Sella Open.
The Forest of Champions gives the event a public, visible tradition. The Champion’s Letter gives it a private, emotional one. Together, they create a sense of continuity that many younger tournaments spend years trying to manufacture and often manage only with a logo refresh and a slightly breathless slogan.
Here, the idea is cleaner. Each edition brings a champion. Each champion leaves something behind: roots in the ground, words for the next winner, and a small but meaningful place in the growing history of La Sella Open.
Not every tournament needs to shout to be remembered. Some simply plant the evidence and let time do the talking.
