Hull and Davies favourites at NSW Open
BY Bruce Young | ALPG Tour | 2011 Women's NSW Open | Preview | 18 Jan 2011
The first of five consecutive three and four round events on this season’s ALPG Tour gets underway this week when the Bing Lee Samsung New South Wales Women’s Open is played at the Oatlands Golf Club in Sydney’s west.
This week’s event will be followed by the 54 hole Actew AGL Royal Canberra Ladies Classic, The Handa Australian Women’s Open, the RACV ANZ Ladies Masters and the Pegasus New Zealand Women’s Open.
This week’s event is being staged for the 5th occasion in its current format with previous winners being Joanne Mills, Laura Davies and Sarah Oh (twice).
The favourite for this year’s event will surely be Australia’s second ranked player and the highest world ranked player in this week’s field, Katherine Hull. Hull has just completed two wins in 36 hole events in the Southern Highlands and having finished runner-up in each of the last two years in this event she appears well placed to win yet another domestic title.
While Hull is the leading world ranked player teeing it up this week, the most credentialed player in the field is previous winner, Laura Davies. Davies is again in Australia early to not only prepare her game for the upcoming Australian Women’s Open and the ANZ Ladies Masters but to continue her support of Australian Women’s golf. It might be a little early in the season for the Englishwoman but her battle with Hull could well be one of the highlights of the week.
Other Australians in the field include LPGA Tour player, Sarah Jane Smith, exciting rookies Stacey Keating and Alison Whitaker, the highly talented Kristie Smith, Sarah Kemp, two time winner Sara Oh and the in-form Stephanie Na.
While unlikely to be any sort of threat to her younger rivals this week, the appearance of 59 year old Jan Stephenson in her home town is sure to attract attention. Stephenson won 16 times on the LPGA Tour including three major championships.
The tournament is played over 54 holes and begins on Friday January 21st.
