- The ladies’ golf professional competition with the biggest prize pool in the history of Spain hosts a total of 132 players including five Olympians and nine of this year’s LET tournament winners.
- The tournament, integrated into the Ladies European Tour, takes place 19 to 22 September in Alicante’s La Sella Golf, with a million euros in prizes.
- Nuria Iturrioz, winner of the first 2023 edition, leads a group of 15 Spanish players hoping to extend the national dominance of this high-stakes tournament.
La Sella Open, the ladies’ golf tournament with a million euros prize pool, the largest in the history of Spain, is the coveted goal of a European star cluster of athletes that will compete between 19 and 22 September for the prized title that Balearic Islands-native Nuria Iturrioz won last year in its stunning inaugural edition.
Nine players with victories on this year’s LET, five participants of the 2024 Paris Olympics and fifteen Spanish players, led by the aforementioned Nuria Iturrioz, form a spectacular team of skillful golf players sure to put on a terrific show.
Among the 132 players, praise is due to the ambitious group of Spanish players that come with the aching goal of keeping the trophy at home with a local win. Nuria Iturrioz admits as much, assuring “the organization and the great care offered by the whole tournament and the course makes us all feel right at home. It feels like a great big tournament.”
Also a contributing factor is the presence of the Madrid-native Marta Martín, the reigning best at the Czech Ladies Open, whose rising career in the last few months makes her a favorite to this year’s final triumph. “I’ve heard nothing but great things about how well it went on the first edition and I’m very excited to be here this year”, cheerfully quips Marta Martín.
Alongside, with just as great an outlook to play a significant role and contribute to extending the Spanish reign at La Sella Open, one can find players of proven quality such as Ana Peláez and Carmen Alonso, with strength and rank and past wins on LET, a milestone that also María Hernández, from Navarra, counts among her triumphs.
From across the Atlantic there are numerous players who have competed in LPGA tournaments, as is the case with Luna Sobrón, or at the Epson Tour, which both Fátima Fernández from Galicia, and Marta Sanz from Madrid, have won twice.
All of them represent a paradigm of what other promising Spanish players look up to, among them Mireia Prat, Teresa Toscano, Teresa Díez Moliner, Paz Marfá, Harang Lee, Natasha Fear and Blanca Fernández, all of whom have high hopes of succeeding.
The Spanish group is aware, however, of the tough competition presented by the numerous and highly qualified international players, eight of them already LET winners in 2024. Such is the case of Czech Republic’s Jana Melichová; Switzerland’s Chiara Tamburlini; Belgium’s Manon de Roey and Shannon Tan from Singapore, the latter two having also competed at the recent Paris Summer Olympics.
The English Annabel Dimmock, Amy Taylor and Bronte Law, also represent tough competition, the latter as leader of the Order of Merit and the added motivation of returning to the Spanish courses. “After two weeks in Scotland where the conditions are extremely difficult, I’m ready to enjoy good weather and get back to the pace of the game,” says Bronte Law, who also appreciates the high prize of the tournament and considers it to be an excellent start to this season’s home stretch. For this endeavor she will rely on the help of her caddie, Gary Marshall, who knows the La Sella Open course well, being a resident of Denia himself.
With the singular distinction of having played tournaments on the LPGA, also attending La Sella Open are Diksha Dagar from India, Holland’s Anne Van Dam – with renowned successes in our country – and Czech Republic’s Klára Davidson Spilková, a definite guarantee to what promises to be a real high stakes sports event.
As well as the aforementioned outstanding players, La Sella Open will see two amateur players obtain their plaque of merit through classifying tournaments. The first place has already been secured by Tiphani Knight, from Golf Playa Serena Club in Almería, who demonstrated her talent through her win at the first tournament celebrated at the prestigious course of the Double Tree by Hilton Islantilla Beach Golf Resort on 26 and 27 August. The second place will be disputed in an upcoming classifying tournament that will be held on 15 September at La Sella Golf, presenting an opportunity for an amateur player to establish themselves as a pro at this LET tournament, which, whatever happens, will remain “a tournament for the ladies”, as it has come to be known, which also aims to minimize differences between male and female golf.
