FOR the second year in a row Ellie Givens can enjoy a December without Tour School, savour Christmas and then turn her focus to making further progress on the Ladies European Tour.

This could have been the week when the Rockliffe Hall Touring pro battling it out with a strong field in Morocco trying to secure exemption status and playing credentials for a further year.

But after a solid end to 2014, culminating in a tied 45th place finish at the Omega Dubai Ladies Masters last weekend, the 25-year-old can look forward to 2015 safe in the knowledge that she will be back on the Tour again next year.

“It is nice, although the goal year on year is not to avoid Tour School,” said Givens. “It’s to play well and I feel like I only started to do that towards the end of the year. Next year I want to build on what I have been doing and record some stronger finishes throughout the year.”

It was after securing more than £1,000 at the Ladies Open De France at the beginning of October when Givens started to make progress towards the top 80 in the Order of Merit, which retains a card for a further year.

And having had to go through Tour School on two previous occasions since turning pro in 2012, the Darlington golfer, who is an honorary member at Blackwell, was determined to avoid a repeat.

“It was a struggle at the start of the year,” she said. “I was struggling with my ball striking and I was not giving myself opportunities to get birdies, which is no good at this level on Tour. It’s all about giving yourself chances and I wasn’t doing that.

“I spent time trying to improve by working hard through the middle part of the year and then it seemed to just pay off from France onwards. I was able to string some decent results together and climb in to the top 80.”

Givens, who intends to take things easy until after Christmas, is busy organising her schedule for next year and her travel arrangements for next month. Despite not playing on the LET until February 2 at the RACV Ladies Masters on Australia’s Gold Coast, she is heading over there early.

“I am pencilled in to play two of three events in Australia and New Zealand at the start of the LET year but I’m not down to play in the ISPS Australian Women’s Open inn between because of my status,” said Givens.

“So because I am also on the Australian Ladies Tour, I’m going to play a few events there first in January and if I play well I could qualify to play in the Australian Open. That would be a great tournament to play in.”

Givens’ highest finish remains the tied sixth place she claimed at the Turkish Airlines Open during 2013 but after finishing this year strongly she feels confident.

“It’s going to be nice going in to the new year with a bit of momentum,” said Givens. “Last year I felt ready to play even though I had just recovered from ankle surgery. This year I just feel like I am ready to build on a strong end to the year after coming back from a slow start.

“Hopefully I can carry on with that when I start to play again in January and secure from strong finishes. That’s what I want because I don’t just want to be on the Ladies European Tour to make up the numbers if you like.”