The world’s best female golfers, including Australian Olympians Hannah Green and Minjee Lee, are set to be met by wild winds in a rare appearance for the women’s game at St Andrews for the AIG Women’s Open Championship.
It is the first time the final women’s major championship of the year has returned to the Home of Golf since 2013 and chief executive of the R&A Martin Slumbers declared in his pre-tournament press conference that there is “a realistic chance of 40, 45 mile-an-hour winds” sweeping through the Old Course.
The ferocious winds are set to make it a brutal introduction to the historic venue for the likes of world number one Nelly Korda who have never teed it up in a tournament at St Andrews before.
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“I think I’m right in saying that 30 of the top 50 have never played a competitive round around here,” Slumbers said.
“I’m excited to see them. This is the Home of Golf. It is arguably the most important golf course in the world. I think we’re going to enjoy watching them play.”
In contrast, professional men have the chance to grace the fairways of the Old Course annually at the DP World Tour’s Alfred Dunhill Links while The Open Championship is played at the venue typically every five years.
Male golfers also have the opportunity to become accustomed to the famous links when they are amateurs in the St Andrews Links Trophy.
The lack of opportunities professional women have to play the iconic Scottish venue has encouraged seven-time major winner Karrie Webb to tee it up this week.
The 49-year-old – who also won the Women’s Open Championship twice before it was deemed a major – plays in frequently on the LPGA Tour nowadays but she could not pass her “last opportunity to compete at St Andrews”.
The lack of exposure to the course for the majority of the women’s field coupled with the wild weather forecast makes this week’s major as wide open as any in recent memory.
The scheduling of tee times will be crucial with those who tee off in the morning on Thursday and play the bulk of their round before the winds become their most powerful in the afternoon at an advantage.
Slumbers said that the R&A have “slowed down the golf course quite a bit” to combat the wild weather that threatens to create scenes where golf balls are blown off greens and play is paused as a result.
“There is a risk that we’ll have delays in play tomorrow, but we’ll deal with that,” Slumbers said.
“I think the best players in the world want a bit of a hard challenge. I just hope it doesn’t blow so hard that we can’t play.”
Green and Lee – along with fellow Australians Webb, Grace Kim, Gabriela Ruffels and Hira Naveed – will be counting their blessings that the schedule has fallen favourably for them.
Steph Kyriacou is the odd one out of the seven-strong Australian contingent by teeing off later in the day but the 23-year-old has an impressive record in major boasting a runner-up finish at the Evian Championship earlier this year, while coming tied seventh at the AIG Women’s Open two years ago.
Australia has a storied history at St Andrews with Cameron Smith winning the 150th Open Championship at the iconic Scottish venue two years ago while Kel Nagle (1960) and Peter Thomson (1955) also triumphed there.
No Australian woman has won the past editions of the Women’s Open Championship at the Home of Golf but Green and Lee are well-placed to add another chapter to the country’s history books.
World number five Green finished agonisingly short of an Olympic medal in Paris coming in fourth at Le Golf National but she is enjoying a career-best season having won twice on the LPGA Tour and she will be refreshed to add a second major title to her resume after skipping last week’s Women’s Scottish Open.
Two-time major winner Lee meanwhile feels due for a win after coming in the top-five in three of the last four the Women’s British Opens.
The former world number two will also have a fire in her belly from sharing the lead at Dundonald Links at the halfway mark last week before falling to a tied 12th finish, and that result came after she possessed a three-shot lead in the final round of the Women’s US Open earlier this year but was unable to hang on to win that event for a second time.
Ruffels is one to watch out for too as she currently leads the LPGA Tour’s rookie of the year standings and she finished in a tie for 13th when she last played this tournament in 2020.
How to watch
Aussie golf fans can catch the AIG Women’s Open LIVE on Fox Sports and Kayo.
When is it?
The tournament runs from Thursday, 22 August to Sunday 25 August.
All four rounds will be broadcast each day from 9pm to 4am AEST.
Aussie round one tee times AEST
4.11pm Hannah Green, Brooke Henderson (CAN), Amy Yang (KOR)
4.33pm Karrie Webb, Stacy Lewis (USA), Catriona Matthew (SCO)
4.44pm Minjee Lee, Lexi Thompson (USA), Gemma Dryburgh (SCO)
5.06pm Grace Kim, Kokona Sakurai (JPN), Shannon Tan (SIN)
5.39pm Gabriela Ruffels, Esther Henseleit (GER), Xiyu Lin (CHN)
6.01pm Hira Naveed, Nanna Koerstz Madsen (DEN), Amy Taylor (ENG)
9.15pm Steph Kyriacou, Akie Iawi (JPN), Andrea Lee (USA)
Source Agencies
