There’s something special about links golf. After all, it is the original layout on which the game was first played centuries ago. And the LPGA Tour’s annual visit to the FREED GROUP Women’s Scottish Open always feels like a homecoming as the game goes back to its roots.
Coming to Scotland fresh off the fourth major of the season at The Amundi Evian Championship, the Women’s Scottish Open is the bridge to the season’s fifth and final major, the AIG Women’s Open. The stop provides players with a transition to links-style play, one the Tour sees on rare occasions, and will provide a warm-up for those who will play next week’s major at Walton Heath Golf Club, host of this year’s AIG Women’s Open.
Dundonald Links welcomes the world’s best to its seaside, links layout about an hour’s drive from Glasgow for the seventh edition of the FREED GROUP Women’s Scottish Open. The course is what most golf fans would imagine when picturing a Scottish golf course with tall heather and mounds sprinkled throughout, all nestled within a climate that can see all four seasons in a single day.
The Women’s Scottish Open marks the midway point of the LPGA’s busiest stretch of the year as it’s the fifth tournament in a string of 10 consecutive events. For some players, it’s a chance to take a much-needed hiatus from competing on tour and instead take in the sights and sounds around Europe. For others, the week represents a chance to experience golf as it was originally intended with all the quirks, bounces and unpredictability that come with navigating the storied links of Scotland.
This year’s playing of the Women’s Scottish Open has attracted one of its strongest fields since becoming a co-sanctioned event with the Ladies European Tour in 2017. Come Thursday, the field will be chock full of both LPGA Tour champions and LET winners who will all be competing for a $2 million purse. For the LPGA Members, 500 coveted Race to the CME Globe points are up for grabs as well. Also on the line? A chance for members of both Tours to secure points toward qualifying for the fast-approaching Solheim Cup, which will be contested in September at Finca Cortesin in Spain.
Ayaka Furue, who earned her breakthrough victory on the LPGA Tour last season, makes a return to Ayrshire where she’s looking to successfully defend her title and win for the first time since her Scottish victory last year. She’s joined by other past champions at the Women’s Scottish Open Mi Hyang Lee (2017) and Ariya Jutanugarn (2018).
More than a dozen major champions are also ready to take on the test that is Dundonald Links for the Women’s Scottish Open. Celine Boutier headlines the field as the Tour’s most recent winner who secured her maiden major title in her home country of France at last week’s Amundi Evian Championship. She’s joined by the three other first-time major champions this season: Lilia Vu, winner of The Chevron Championship, Ruoning Yin, who won the KPMG Women’s PGA Championship, and Allisen Corpuz, U.S. Women’s Open champion.
Dundonald Links is a challenging layout and one befitting a major championship tune-up as it will provide players with plenty of chances to show off their creativity in advance of their trip to Walton Heath. The FREED GROUP Women’s Scottish Open may be a tough test, but those with the patience, creativity, and resolve to endure its ever-changing and unpredictable conditions will be victorious come Sunday.
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