Date: 07/03/19

Location: New South Wales, Australia

Course: Queanbeyan Golf Club

Prize Fund: AUD $150,000

Defending Champion: Meghan MacLaren -10 (different course)

140 players look to end the Australia stretch of the Ladies European Tour with a victory this week. Below we look at 4 players who should play well at the Women's New South Wales Open.

Meghan Maclaren (England)

Defending champion Meghan's game is trending in the right direction at the moment. She looks set for a strong finish at the tournament that gave her a maiden win on the LET last year.

Since winning the LET Access Series in 2017 Meghan has continued to improve. She didn't have much success last year on the Symetra Tour in the USA but has continued to play well on the LET tour.

She has started 2019 well after finishing 6th last week, 16th at Bonville and an impressive 22nd on the LPGA Tour at the Australian Open.

The 24-year-old from Northamptonshire said “I haven’t defended a title since my amateur days in the British Ladies’ Strokeplay and I remember my coach at the time saying, ‘Don’t look at it as though you’re trying to defend the title, because you’re not defending anything. You just want to go out there and play your own game.’ I think that’s a nice way of approaching it,”

Meghan has risen to 259th in the world rankings.

Marianne Skarpnord (Norway)

What a start to 2019 it has been for Marianne Skarpnord. She started the season well finishing runner up at the Fatima Bint Open in the UAE before heading to Australia where she finished 11th at the Handa Vic Open on the LPGA before winning the Australian Ladies Classic back on the LET 2 weeks ago. She continued her good form finishing 24th last week.

Marianne currently leads the Order of Merit ahead of Anne Van Dam and has also risen to 8th spot in the Solheim Cup rankings.

Now up to 133rd in the world Skarpnord will have fiance and fellow pro golfer Richard Green on caddie duties this week.

Esther Henseleit (Germany)

Our first rookie to feature in any of our previews this year is Esther Henseleit. The 20-year-old from Hamburg has made a great start to life on the LET. She seems unfazed by life on tour after finishing 9th at the Australian Ladies Classic before backing that up with an 8th place finish last week.

Esther said in the lead up to this event “I hope to play well again and maybe post another top 10. My swing feels good and I feel comfortable on the greens, so I’m looking forward to it.”

Esther was an amateur when she finished 3rd at last years tour school.

Sarah Kemp (Australia)

Australian Kemp started the year in Abu Dhabi where she finished 16th before returning back to Australia to play in the two LPGA events. She finished runner up at the Vic Open and 10th at the Australian Open. Since then she finished 37th at the Ladies Classic and ended up 14th last week at the Canberra Classic.

It has been an impressive start to 2019 by Kemp and she will want to finish well in her native Australia. Kemp who finished 5th in last years Order of Merit currently sits 144th in the world.

Prediction

Marianne Skarpnord becomes the first player to win twice this season.