The Ladies European Tour rolls into Magenta Shores GC on the Pacific coast of Australia this week as the Women’s New South Wales Open kicks off on Friday and Lauren Walsh and Olivia Mehaffey will both tee it up over 54 holes on the links.
Castlewarden’s Walsh will kick off Irish interest in the first grouping at 7.15am (local time) as she comes in off the back of a tie for 32nd in the Magical Kenya Ladies Open and a tie for 24th in the Lalla Meryem Cup in February. She is joined in the morning group by Australian, Kirsten Rudgeley and Germany’s Patricia Isabel Schmidt. Lauren turned professional last summer and competed in five LET Access Series events achieving a second-place finish and three top-10 finishes. She attended Q school in December of 2023 and earned Category 16 status so is looking forward to competing on the LET in 2024.
Banbridge native and Arizona State alum, Mehaffey follows sharply in the third group arrives after a tie 23rd in Kenya and 62nd at the Lalla Meryem. It’s 7.37am (local) start for Mehaffey, with Hayley Davis from England and Dane, Nicole Brosch Estrup. The 26-year-old, having turned professional in 2021 already has two top-ten finishes under her belt.
A co-sanctioned event with the WPGA Australasia, a field of 132 players of 36 nationalities will take to the course over three days. Some of the Tour’s top competitors will all gather to compete for this, first of two weeks for the Tour in Australia.
Two LET winners from the 2024 season are in attendance with Magical Kenya Ladies Open winner Shannon Tan here, as well as Lalla Meryem Cup victor Bronte Law. The duo are also at the top of the pile in the rankings with Law leading the Order of Merit and Tan leading Rookie of the Year. England’s Meghan MacLaren is a former champion having won this title in 2018 and successfully defended it in 2019. Thailand’s Trichat Cheenglab – last season’s Race to Costa del Sol champion – will be here for her fourth event of the season, while Dutch star Anne Van Dam is the top-ranked player in the field as she sits 78th in the Rolex Women’s World Golf Rankings.
Defending champion, Kiwi, Momoka Kobori was asked about her title defence with the influx of international players at the event this year: “Honestly, it doesn’t really feel like I am defending,” Kobori said. “Last year was great because we had an event even though it wasn’t LET co-sanctioned. I suppose I am defending, but I am going into this week like another LET event. Even this week just seeing everyone from the LET, everyone from Aussie, it’s been good to catch up with everyone and have all the European girls come over to this part of the world.”
On whether local advantage would be any help this weekend: “I think it is always an advantage being able to play in your home country, or home Tour,” she said. “Some of these Australian courses can be a little bit different, a little bit extra figuring out to do as opposed to some of the courses we see over in Europe. It is probably going to be a little bit of an advantage for the Aussie girls.”
With the weather anticipated to play ball this weekend, temperatures of early-to-mid 20s are expected with light winds, maybe picking up on Sunday. This could make shot shaping on the final day interesting. Walsh and Mehaffey have two rounds to make cut with the top-sixty and ties going forward to the final day. While for the first time in LET history, three siblings will be playing in the same tournament with Munchin, Wenyung and Siyi Keh all involved.
With an expanded international field and local knowledge, the links course is set to serve up plenty of entertainment over the weekend and, at any stage if the wind should rear its head, we could see some fireworks on the pristine Magenta Shores coast.
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