This Thursday, the Aramco Saudi Ladies International kicks off at the Riyadh Golf Club in the capital of Arabia. It’s not just another tournament on the women’s golf calendar. Far from it. It distributes five million dollars, the highest prize pool of a regular tournament from both the Ladies European Tour, its parent circuit, and the LPGA Tour. Only the five Majors (Chevron, US Open, Women’s PGA, Evian and British) and the LPGA Final offer juicier cheques. With this scenario, it is striking that the best players in the world miss this opportunity, considering that there is no tournament on the American circuit this week.
Let’s set the scene. A total of 120 players compete in the tournament, of which, ten are invitations, sixty arrive by the LET ranking and fifty belong to the top 300 of the world ranking. This means that the best in the world, even if they are not LET members, have the doors open to play this event. However, only one top 10 in the world will be present, the English Charley Hull, and only two more from the top 20, Amy Yang, Jiyai Shin and Ayaka Furue.
We repeat that there is no regular tournament throughout the year on the LPGA Tour that distributes such a large prize pool, in a golf, the women’s, where the amounts of money from the male do not move. It is inevitable that it is striking that 16 of those 20 best in the world have declined the possibility of playing.
It’s not about looking for three feet on the cat, surely the explanation is that most of the American players who are in that top 20, have enough with playing the LPGA, and most of the Asians are already on their continent to play from next week the Asian tour of the American circuit, composed of three consecutive tournaments. In any case, even if there is an explanation, it is surprising.
As we have said, the three best players in the tournament are Hull, Number 8, Yang and Shin, to which must be added a notable participation, especially European, with golfers of the stature of Georgia Hall, Leona Maguire, Linn Grant, Lexi Thompson, Patty Tavatanakit, Ayaka Furue, Emily Pedersen or Yuka Saso. That is, it is still a great tournament, undoubtedly the best of the year in terms of participation in the Ladies European Tour.
In this high-voltage event, we will also have six Spaniards led by Carlota Ciganda. Along with the Navarrese are Ana Peláez, Carmen Alonso, who makes her debut this season after missing last week’s event in Kenya, María Hernández, Nuria Iturrioz and Marta Sanz. The match of Peláez stands out, who will go out to play against the talented Thai Major winner, Tavatanakit.
The tournament starts this Thursday and will end on Sunday with a cut after the second day with the sixty best and tied.
