For the second consecutive year, the Ladies European Tour (LET) season kicks off with the Magical Kenya Ladies Open at Vipingo Ridge.
Extraordinary surroundings in Kilifi County will play host to the LET season-opener which sees 96 players from 28 different countries doing battle in a 72-hole stroke play format from February 2-5.
The tournament also marks the start of the 2023 Race to Costa del Sol – the fourth edition – which will see the LET’s best golfer crowned champion at the end of the year.
It will be a third trip to the par-73 Baobab Course for the LET, while Vipingo Ridge is also a wildlife sanctuary and there are sure to be plenty of animals roaming the fairways as there were in 2022.
Defending champion Esther Henseleit leads the contenders for the title and the German will be aiming for a three-peat in Kenya.
The 2019 Order of Merit recorded one-shot victories in both the 2019 and 2022 editions of the tournament and is back to try her hand once again.
From last season’s Race to Costa del Sol, three players from the top five will begin their season in Kenya with Johanna Gustavsson (3rd), Manon De Roey (4th) and Ana Peláez Trivino (5th) hoping to pick up where they left off.
Joining Henseleit, De Roey and Peláez Trivino as winners from 2022 are Finland’s Tiia Koivisto and Czechia’s Jana Melichova.
There are also players who have fared well in Kenya in the previous two editions with India’s Aditi Ashok – who finished second to Henseleit in 2019 – returning.
While Spain’s Marta Sanz Barrio, Sweden’s Linnea Ström, and Germany’s Sophie Hausmann were second, third and fourth, respectively, in 2022 and will be hoping to improve upon that.
With it being the start of a new season, there will be 23 rookies competing in Kenya including Germany’s Alexandra Försterling – who jointly topped the leaderboard at LET Q-School – and Czechia’s Sara Kouskova, the 2022 LETAS Order of Merit winner.
Eswatini’s Nobuhle Dlamini will tee it up in the season-opener and Kenya is well-represented with five amateurs in the field as Naomi Wafula, Mercy Nyanchama, Chanelle Wangari, Nancy Wairimu and Jacquelyne Walter will all compete.
The full tournament entry list can be found here.
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