Inaugural Ladies European Tour Saudi Arabia Event Confirmed

published 12 December 2019

The Ladies European Tour will be heading to Saudi Arabia in March for the first time, with a huge purse of $1m confirmed for the event

Inaugural Ladies European Tour Saudi Arabia Event Confirmed

The Ladies European Tour will follow the men's European Tour in staging an event in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia.

A new tournament has been announced for March, which will be the first women's professional golf event in the Kingdom, as the 'Vision 2030' project continues its momentum.

Saudi Arabia's 'Vision 2030' is an economic programme aimed at decreasing the country's dependency on oil revenue.

At the heart of this is the new $100bn megacity King Abdullah Economic City (KAEC, pronounced 'cake'), which is home to the Royal Greens Golf and Country Club - venue for the men's Saudi International as well as this new LET tournament.

The new women's event will see a prize fund of $1m, the second-highest non-Major purse of season on the Ladies European Tour after the Scottish Open.

The men's Saudi International, from Jan 30th to Feb 2nd, once again features a strong field with defending champion Dustin Johnson, World No.1 Brooks Koepka, Phil Mickelson, Sergio Garcia, Tony Finau and Henrik Stenson confirmed.

The new Ladies European Tour event will feature Carly Booth, Amy Boulden and Rachel Drummond from the UK and Camilla Lennarth and Isabella Deilart from Sweden, all of whom are Golf Saudi ambassadors.

“I’m looking forward to being part of history with the other ladies on the tour and of course to competing over the Royal Greens course," three-time LET winner Carly Booth said.

"I have visited Saudi Arabia on a number of occasions and been lucky enough to spend some time teaching local women and girls how to play; they have been so enthusiastic and I am sure that seeing professional golfers compete in their country will inspire them to take up the game and strive for their dreams.”

“I am incredibly excited by this announcement and it is an honour for the Tour to be part of history in bringing the first-ever professional women’s golf event to Saudi Arabia,” said Ladies European Tour, CEO, Alexandra Armas.

“Confirmation of adding Saudi Arabia to our schedule for 2020 is an exciting prospect for everyone at the Ladies European Tour and having seen the quality of the event staging for the Saudi International, I am sure this will be a fantastic experience for our players.”

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Elliott Heath is our News Editor and has been with Golf Monthly since early 2016 after graduating with a degree in Sports Journalism. He manages the Golf Monthly news team as well as our large Facebook, Twitter and Instagram pages. He covered the 2022 Masters from Augusta National as well as five Open Championships on-site including the 150th at St Andrews. His first Open was in 2017 at Royal Birkdale, when he walked inside the ropes with Jordan Spieth during the Texan's memorable Claret Jug triumph. He has played 35 of our Top 100 golf courses, with his favourites being both Sunningdales, Woodhall Spa, Western Gailes, Old Head and Turnberry. He has been obsessed with the sport since the age of 8 and currently plays off of a six handicap. His golfing highlights are making albatross on the 9th hole on the Hotchkin Course at Woodhall Spa, shooting an under-par round, playing in the Aramco Team Series on the Ladies European Tour and making his one and only hole-in-one at the age of 15 - a long time ago now!

Elliott is currently playing:

Driver: Titleist TSR4

3 wood: Titleist TSi2

Hybrids: Titleist 816 H1

Irons: Mizuno MP5 5-PW

Wedges: Cleveland RTX ZipCore 50, 54, 58

Putter: Odyssey White Hot OG #5

Ball: Srixon Z Star XV

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