Walton Heath’s Par 3 9th of the Composite Women’s Open Course – photo David Cannon Getty
Six Australians and one New Zealander are in the field for this week’s AIG Women’s Open at Walton Heath, the first time the event has been played at the heathland layout in Surrey.
Lydia Ko, Minjee Lee, Hannah Green, Grace Kim, Stephanie Kyriacou, Sarah Kemp and Kelsey Bennett have made it into the fifth and final major of the year for women’s golf.
It has been 21 years since Karrie Webb won the third and last of her Women’s British Open titles, adding to the other Australian names of Karen Lunn and Corinne Dibnah.
When Webb won all those years ago she earned a cheque for US$236,000 but in 2023 the winner will take home nearly US$1.1 million of the US$7.3 million total purse.
Ko’s record in the event has been below that of her overall record in tournament golf. This will be her 12th appearance in the event and on only two occasions has she finished inside the top ten, her best being when 3rd behind Inbee Park in 2015. Ko’s other problem is her lack of recent form.
Lee, on the other hand, has enjoyed a consistent run in the event with four top tens in her last five appearances, her best, also, a 3rd place behind Sophia Popov in 2020 and appears to be in better form than Ko at present.
Green has made every cut in her five appearances to date but a 16th-place finish in 2019 is her only top 20 finish till now.
Kyriacou is one of Australian golf’s rising stars and a 13th and 7th place finish at her last two of three starts in the event, suggests she enjoys playing in Britain.
Grace Kim is also one of Australian golf’s most promising young professionals having already won in her rookie season on the LPGA Tour in 2023. This is her first time in this event.
Sarah Kemp has shown in recent weeks that her game is nearing its peak especially her impressive share of 9th place last week to secure a place in this week’s field. Having played in Europe for much of her career, Kemp will enjoy the type of layout that Walton Heath provides but her record in the event is poor having missed eight of her eleven starts.
Kelsey Bennet has done remarkably well to make the field having survived a mammoth playoff at Final Qualifying and gets her first start at this level.
