Connie Chen, the Tenerife Open de Espana champion will be in China
The fifth Sanya Ladies Open will be held at Yalong Bay Golf Club in tropical Hainan, China, from Fri 14 – Sun 16 November.
A total of 120 top golfers from a minimum of 17 countries including the United States, Australia and South Africa will gather in Sanya for the 54-hole stroke play contest.
The field will be comprised of 55 players from the Ladies European Tour (LET), 33 from the China LPGA Tour, 22 from the Ladies Asian Golf Tour (LAGT) and two amateurs with eight invitations.
There will be seven of this year’s Ladies European Tour winners so far, with England’s Trish Johnson (Aberdeen Asset Management Ladies Scottish Open) and Florentyna Parker (Ladies Italian Open), Frenchwomen Jul
ie Greciet (Sberbank Golf Masters) and Valentine Derrey (Turkish Airlines Ladies Open), South African Connie Chen (Tenerife Open de Espana Femenino), Sweden’s Camilla Lennarth (Allianz Ladies Slovak Open presented by Respect) and Scotland’s Kylie Walker (Deloitte Ladies Open and Ladies German Open presented by Marriott).
Past Sanya Ladies Open champions Cassandra Kirkland from France (2012) and Frances Bondad of Australia (2011) will also return to the venue to compete in the €300,000 tournament.
Other notable players to watch in the field include the Australian Nikki Campbell, who fired a tournament low round of 63 (-9) to lead after the first round last year, as well as fellow Australian Stacey Keating, Swede Pernilla Lindberg and Frenchwoman Joanna Klatten.
China’s Yu Yang Zhang, who finished second last year, is expected to return as part of a strong field of home competitors along with Yu Ting Shi, Jia Yun Li and Xi Yu Lin, who all finished within the top seven places. Lin in particular will be one to watch as she has not finished outside the top ten in her last four visits to Sanya since playing in the inaugural event in 2010 as a 14-year-old amateur.
Once again, the players are looking forward to testing themselves against the par-72 (36-36) Robert Trent Jones-designed course, which will be set at 6433 yards for the tournament.
Since its inception in 2000, Yalong Bay has successfully staged 13 professional tournaments such as the Sanya Open in 2003, 2004 and 2006, the Volkswagen Masters in 2006, Crowne Plaza Open in 2006; the TCL Classic on the PGA European Tour in 2005, 2006 and 2007 as well as the Sanya Ladies Open in 2010, 2011, 2012 and 2013.
Owned by China Everbright Group, the course was named as one of the ‘World 100 Best Courses outside the US’ and in ‘China’s Top 10 Golf Clubs’ by American Golf Digest.
