Three of the world’s top ten players including No.4 Suzann Pettersen, Sweden’s Anna Nordqvist and South Korea’s In Kyung Kim, ranked ninth and tenth in the world respectively, are among the 126 competitors in the star powered tournament.
European Solheim Cup Captain Alison Nicholas won’t be playing but will be watching the proceedings closely from outside the ropes to see which players fare best over the Jack Nicklaus designed course.
Last year at Portmarnock Links, Italian Diana Luna was the victor and she is hoping to retain the title, despite a seven month break from competitive golf.
The 27-year-old from Rome is travelling with her three month old daughter, Elena. She is determined to make next year’s side, having starred on The 2009 European Solheim Cup Team that travelled to Rich Harvest Farms in Illinois. She earned 1.5 points from two matches, notably defeating Nicole Castrale 3&2 in the singles.
The three-time tournament winner is playing in her third straight tournament, having tied for 77th place at the Evian Masters and missed the cut at the Ricoh Women’s British Open last week.
She has been inspired by the 2009 Ricoh Women’s British Open champion Matthew, who won her first major championship 11 weeks after the birth of her second daughter.
“If you think about Catriona, what she did after giving birth, I have of course got a chance,” Luna said. “I’m not saying that it’s going to be easy but I think I need to be confident in my game. Sometimes you don’t believe you can but actually, you can. It’s just the belief you need to be sure about yourself. You come back and you don’t know what to expect so you basically don’t expect anything. I should expect because I’m playing well.”
Heading the field is Pettersen, who won the 2008 event at Portmarnock Links. She hasn’t won a tournament since the 2009 CN Canadian Women’s Open despite two runner-up finishes in major championships this season. She is suffering a hip problem which is preventing her from swinging as freely as she would like, but she revealed her strategy: “Take driver every hole and try to stiff it when you have a short iron in the hand.”
Americans Angela Stanford and Brittany Lincicome, ranked 13th and 18th in the world, will be among the favourites for the first prize of €75,000, along with Australian Katherine Hull, the World No.19 who finished a stroke behind the winner Yani Tseng at the Ricoh Women’s British Open.
Reflecting on her performance at Royal Birkdale, Hull said: “I’d love to go one better obviously, as would everyone. I’d like to win, that’s why we compete. Obviously this is a fantastic field so it’s going to be difficult and going to be an exciting final round.”
She added: “This is my first time here. I’ve always wanted to come here. I went down to Tralee on Monday and did the Dingle Peninsula because my caddie is from Tralee. Tuesday morning I played Tralee Golf Course and then Tuesday afternoon went down to Killarney and Kenmare. I played Ballybunion yesterday morning, did the Cliffs of Moher in the afternoon and then drove back here last night so it’s been jam packed but it’s been a lot of fun.”
The extrovert Christina Kim is likely to bring some excitement to the tournament, along with fellow Americans Kristy McPherson and Brittany Lang, who were all members of the victorious 2009 US Solheim Cup team.
After playing at Killeen Castle, Kim said: “You know it honestly reminds me quite a bit of Rich Harvest Farms that we played last year; you know it’s not your most typical European style golf course; fairly wide open, lots of space, generous, very undulating, slopey greens, beautiful facilities; there’s so much space out here.”
Ireland’s leading challenge comes from Rebecca Coakley, ranked 48th on the LET’s Henderson Money List, who will play with three-time Irish Open winner Sophie Gustafson of Sweden and South African Lee-Anne Pace at 8.30am in the first round.
Irish amateur Danielle McVeigh will play with Nordqvist and Anja Monke at 1.30pm on Friday.
Lisa Maguire, 15, plays with European No.1 Laura Davies and Hull at 1.40pm, while her twin sister Leona, who played with Davies last year, will tee up alongside Pettersen and Melissa Reid at 8.20am.
