Following a five-fold increase, the purse for year’s Aramco Saudi Ladies International offers equal prize money to the men’s tournament, which took place at the start of the month.
That means players will be competing for a $5m prize fund at Royal Greens Golf and Country Club. Of that, with the winner will earn $750,000. Not surprisingly, given the enormous financial incentive, many of the world’s best are in the 120-player field for the event including six of the world’s top 10 and a total of 13 Major winners.
Georgia Hall is back to defend the trophy she won in 2022. The 2018 British Women’s Open champion won by a commanding five shots ahead of Johanna Gustavsson and Kristyna Napoleaova last year, and she will be confident of a repeat performance in 2023.
However, much of the expectation will be on World No.1 Lydia Ko. This will be Ko’s first tournament since the two-time Major winner split with her caddie, Derek Kistler, despite a stellar 2022 that included three LPGA Tour victories among nine top-five finishes. The New Zealander will hope that the change will ensure she remains on top of her game in 2023, starting with the tournament she won two years ago.
Lexi Thompson, who won the Chevron Championship in 2014, is another standout name. The World No.7’s most recent win came last October in the Aramco Team Series New York, and she will hope for a strong start to her year in Saudi Arabia this week.
Other Major winners playing this week include World No.8 In Gee Chun, whose most recent of her three Major victories came in last year’s Women’s PGA Championship, and 2014 Evian Championship winner, World No.9 Hyo-Joo Kim. Danielle Kang, who won the 2017 Women’s PGA Championship and Hannah Green, who won the same tournament two years later, also play.
The most recent Major winner was South African Ashleigh Buhai, who claimed victory in last year’s AIG Women’s Open and she also plays this week. Anna Nordqvist, Jeong Eun Lee6, A Lim Kim, Eun-Hee Ji and Patty Tavatanakit complete the list of Major winners in the field.
The star-quality doesn’t end there. Other high-profile players competing include 2022 Race To Costa Del Sol victor Linn Grant, World No.4 Atthaya Thitikul, who became the second youngest World No.1 – albeit briefly – last year and World No.10 Nasa Hataoka. The four players immediately outside the top 10, Leona Maguire, Charley Hull, Xi Yu Lin, Celine Boutier, also play.
Below is the full breakdown of the prize money and…
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