Ladies European Tour: World Ladies Championship Preview

Team and individual titles are on the line this week at the LET World Ladies Championship

The Ladies European Tour (LET) is mixing it up this week with a combined team and individual event in the sixth edition of the World Ladies Championship. The event is tri-sanctioned by the LET, Korean LPGA and China LPGA tours.

National pride is on the line as teams of two based on country are vying for a joint title, with individual honors also up for grabs.

A Korean team and individual have won three years running, and a fourth could be in the cards this week at Mission Hills Hainan’s Blackstone course in China.

World No. 31 Jin-Young Ko is the highest ranked in the field and is prepared to defend her team title with No. 131 Lee Jung-min, who was the 2016 individual winner at nine-under-par.

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The two ran away with a 15-stroke victory at 12-under-par combined. Jung-min’s nine-under total edged three golfers by one stroke.

Another team to watch is England and its pair of Solheim Cup hopefuls. Georgia Hall is No. 2 on the Solheim Cup List and No. 4. Both co-led the LET with eight top-10s in 2016.

Hall and Parker may be fond of the venue change. Hall missed the cut and Parker posted three rounds over par en route to a 42nd-place finish.

Denmark’s Emily Kristine Pedersen and Nanna Koerstz Madsen will also bear watching. They’re both building 2017 Solheim Cup points and Mission Hills could deliver a bonus the pair.

The LPGA’s Founders Cup in Arizona snatched much of the world’s elite talent this week, but the World Ladies Championship has an illustrious past champions list featuring Inbee Park, Suzann Pettersen and So-yeon Ryu.

Other nations that will be represented: Australia, China, Denmark, Finland, France, Germany, Italy, Malaysia, Netherlands, South Africa, Spain, Scotland, Sweden, Taiwan and Thailand.

The Course, Purse

Last year’s World Ladies Championship was at Mission Hills’ Olazabal Course, one of four Mission Hills courses to cycle through in six editions.

This year’s seventh edition will only be a three-day event at the Blackstone course. The purse shrunk with it, down from $800,000 USD (a 33 percent increase from 2015) to just over $600,000.

A cut from 126 to 60 will be made after 36 holes before Sunday’s final round.

Blackstone is a par-73 and is one of 10 courses at Mission Hills Hainan. Its closing stretch is an exciting one. The par-4 17th requires two carries of water and the 18th is a sidehill par-5.

Not often do you hear “lava” and “golf” together. Blackstone features exposed areas of volcanic rock and the course is built on a bed of lava rock formed from the Qiongbei volcanic cluster approximately 10,000 years ago.

Asian Monthly deemed Blackstone the No. 1 course in China from 2011-15, the Best New Course in Asia in 2010 and the No. 1 Championship Course in Asia Pacific in 2012-13.

Golf Magazine also listed it as the No. 2 Best New International Course in 2010.

Along with the World Ladies Championship, Blackstone was the site of 2013’s ‘Match at Mission Hills’ between Rory McIlroy and Tiger Woods and hosts the biennial World Celebrity Pro-Am.

Players and, perhaps fans, can also check out the World’s Largest Spa Resort according to Guinness World Records.

Next: Founders Cup Fantasy Picks

You can follow the World Ladies Championship on the LET electronic leaderboard and on the LET Facebook page.