Steph Kyriacou is excited to be playing back on home soil on the Ladies European Tour (LET) at this week’s Women’s Australian Open.
The two-time LET winner will be teeing it up in the 72-hole stroke play competition, which is co-sanctioned with the WPGA Tour of Australasia.
A prize fund of $1.7m Australian dollars is up for grabs for the field of 144 players, which includes Australian major champions Hannah Green, Minjee Lee and Grace Kim.
Kooyonga Golf Club is the venue for this week and it’s a new course for Kyriacou, but she is looking forward to play in her home open.
“I’m super excited to be back home,” she said. “I love competing at home. The Aussie crowds are amazing, so hopefully we get a big crowd out. It’s my first time at Kooyonga and the course is looking unreal.
“When you play the practice round, you pay a bit more attention to the contours around the greens. Other than that, it’s just like every other week you’re still trying to do the same thing and hit the same shots.
“It’s quite tough off the tee. There are lots of bushes around. This course is very much a placement course. So, if you get a good shot off the tee and leave yourself some good approach shots in, I think that’s going to be a key point to winning. The greens are quite tricky as well and there are lots of run-offs. I’m putting from most places off the green, so just trying to dial that in a little bit.
“It’s a big tournament in my calendar playing the national open. It’s a pretty strong field. I’m super excited to showcase what we can do. Adelaide is a great place. They haven’t had an Aussie open here for a few years, so I think it’ll be quite popular. It’s always exciting and a bit nerve-racking because there’s thousands of eyes just on you.
“Being an Aussie playing in front of Australian crowds, it makes it easier because no matter how you play, they’re always going to be encouraging and they’re going to be supporting you. We have that home advantage.”
Kyriacou had a different experience in the off-season as she attended the Crown Australian Open in December.
The 25-year-old has a newfound greater appreciation of the work the volunteers do after she carried the scoreboard for Rory McIlroy, Min Woo Lee and Adam Scott.
She explained: “That was good. It was actually quite heavy. I was really sore the next day, to be honest, but it was a really cool experience. I would definitely do it again.
“I knew all the crowds are going to be so busy watching a group like that, watching Rory, Adam, and Min. Because I’m vertically challenged, it’s hard to watch outside the ropes. It was a great experience. I have a greater appreciation for volunteers and what they do for us.”
A total of 31 Australian players will be teeing it up on home soil all vying to lift the trophy at the end of the week.
Kyriacou isn’t feeling the pressure but rather knows it would be nice if she was able to add her name to the list of legends who have won before.
She added: “I think for all of us this tournament ranks pretty high because this is a national open and coming home, playing at home, I know the other girls like it. I really like it. It’s definitely a tournament we all want to win in our career.
“I don’t know if it puts more pressure, but I think it’s just something really cool to look forward to when you do lift that trophy. You’re going to be on a trophy with all those amazing Australian golfers. Not so much pressure, but it’s just something pretty cool.”
Kyriacou will tee it up on Thursday at 12.31 pm (local time) alongside Major winner Grace Kim and South Africa’s Casandra Alexander.
Keep up with all the action across each tournament on our socials – @LETgolf on Instagram and X and Ladies European Tour on Facebook and YouTube.
