All to play for in wide-open Dimension Data Ladies Challenge

4 Febuary 2022 Nicole Garcia during round 3 of the Sun Bet Cape Town Ladiers Open 2022, at the Royal Cape Golf Club.

The R700,000 54-hole tournament – with a R600,000 purse for the professionals, and R100,000 for the team competition with participating amateurs – gets underway on Friday with the first of two rounds at George Golf Club. The final round is contested on the Outeniqua course at Fancourt on Sunday.

Nicole Garcia, the champion in 2017, can attest to how useful a victory in the tournament is as a springboard to an international career as she went on to successfully campaign on the Ladies European Tour after her victory.

Last year’s winner, Marianne Skarpnord from Norway, went on to capture her fourth Ladies European Tour title after her play-off win in George, taking the individual title in the Aramco Team Series event in London in July.

Nobuhle Dlamini of Swaziland and Lejan Lewthwaite are two other former champions who have followed Garcia’s path to the Ladies European Tour after their wins in the Dimension Data Ladies Challenge. The duo, along with 2015 champion Stacy Bregman and 2016 winner Lee-Anne Pace, are in action in the Ladies European Tour’s Magical Kenya Ladies Open this week.

The first winner of the tournament, Monique Smit, as well as the 2018 champion Carrie Park of South Korea, will not be teeing it up this week, so with the defending champion and five other former winners not in the field, the path is clear for a new champion to level up.

The hopefuls will be wary of Garcia, though.

Just one off the pace heading into the final round, the three-time Sunshine Ladies Tour winner was right in the thick of things last week in the season-opening SunBet Cape Town Ladies Open, but a disappointing closing four-over-par 80 meant she finished in a share of sixth, four shots behind first-time winner Nadia van der Westhuizen.

Garcia will have stored on her memory hard drive the details of her 2017 win, where she produced a sensational eagle at the par five 17th and boxed her final putt for birdie to clinch the title with a flawless five-under-par 67.

That, as well as her recent good form, could make her tough to beat.

Van der Westhuizen is in the field at George, too, and, naturally, will be wanting to parlay the early form which gave her a maiden professional win into a second win on the trot, as well as a starting point to an international career which the Dimension Data Ladies Challenge seems to give.

Other young South Africans looking to capitalise include Cara Gorlei and Brittney Fay Berger, who tied for second and eighth respectively at Royal Cape Golf Club.

As if to underline the effectiveness of a good performance in George, there are no fewer than 17 international campaigners representing 11 countries trying to launch international careers too, and Skarpnord has clearly been talking up the value of a South African campaign as there are three Norwegians in the field.

India’s Vani Kapoor, who has won a record 29 times on the Hero Women’s Pro Golf Tour, will be looking for a fast start to her Sunshine Ladies Tour season.

Arizona State graduate Linn Grant is a another first-timer. The Swede, who earned cards for the 2022 LPGA and Ladies European Tour seasons courtesy of strong performances in both qualifying schools, enjoyed runner-up finishes in the Didriksons Skafto Open and Creekhouse Ladies Open on the Ladies European Tour last season. She has chosen the Dimension Data Ladies Challenge to kick off her season in preparation of the co-sanctioned Joburg Ladies Open and Investec South African Women’s Open and the 21-year-old Helsingborg golfer will undoubtedly aim for a winning start in George.

With the absence of the amateurs last year due to Covid-19 protocols, former SA Women’s Open Skarpnord won with rounds on Outeniqua and Montagu after the event was moved to Fancourt.

Returning to the original format, the top 10 ranked teams after the first two rounds will contest the Betterball title on the Outeniqua Course, with the professionals shooting for the lion’s share of the R100 000 bonus pool.

PHOTO – Former Dimension Data Ladies Challenge winner Nicole Garcia will be in action this week as the second Sunshine Ladies Tour event tees off at George Golf Club on Friday; credit Sunshine Ladies Tour.