Lalla Meryem Cup Preview & 4 to watch
Date: 25/04/19
Location: Morocco
Course: Royal Golf Dar Es Salam (Blue Course)
Prize Fund: €450,000
Defending Champion: Jenny Haglund (Swe)
Sweden’s Jenny Haglund is the defending champion of the Lalla Meryem Cup in Morocco this week, taking place at Royal Golf Dar Es Salam in the capital Rabat. The 25-year-old from Karlstad defeated Sarah Kemp and the 2017 champion Klara Spilkova in a play-off at the venue last year. Below we have selected 4 players that we think could be holding the jewel-encrusted purse trophy come the end of play.
Meghan MacLaren (England)
Meghan is really at the top of her game at the moment and she will be the player to catch this week. If you listened to her interview on the podcast "on the dance floor" she said how she is playing the full season on the LET. I believe this will suit her game even more without the disruption of playing on different style courses in America.
So far this season she has had a win and two top 10 finishes, on top of that she went toe to toe with Daan Huizing at the Jordan Mixed Open a couple of weeks ago. It was a great performance under the pressure and she was unlucky not to hang on for the victory. She did finish the best of the LET players by 7 shots!
She finished 30th here last year and 25th in 2017. A much better player now and has risen to world number 209 and 2nd on the Order of Merit. A victory here would see her leapfrog Charley Hull and Carlota Ciganda into second place on the European Solheim Cup points list, boosting her chances of a debut appearance for Team Europe.
Laura Fuenfstueck (Germany)
Laura is really building on what was a great rookie season last year. This year she has had 3 top 15 finishes and finished 2nd best LET player at the Jordan Mixed Open 2 weeks ago.
Laura finished 8th here last year after leading after the opening 2 rounds. She was just let down slightly by a poor final round. She could go better this year and is trending in the right direction to do so.
Currently 10th on the Order of Merit and sits 412th in the Rolex Rankings.
Marianne Skarpnord (Norway)
Marianne's season got of to a flying start finishing runner up at the Fatima Bint before going on to win the Ladies Classic Bonville a few weeks later. Again another player who had a good Jordan Mixed Open finishing Tied 25th but Tied 4th between the LET players.
The 33-year-old from Sarpsborg also had a good finish on the LPGA earlier in the year down in Australia finishing 11th. Her good start to the season sees her topping the Order of Merit and has risen to 144th in the world. She finished 11th here last year closing with rounds of 71, 70 to shoot her up the leaderboard.
Leona Maguire (Ireland)
Leona Maguire has really covered the globe so far in her first season as a professional. The former world number 1 amateur had a best of 14th in Australia at the Canberra Classic in her 3 tournaments down under. Since then she has been in the States playing on the Symetra Tour where she seems to have taken her game to the next level.
The Symetra Tour is very competitive with players vying for spots on the LPGA for next season. However, she has finished 5th, 4th and then went on to win her first pro tournament last time out. It will be interesting to see if she can translate that form onto the LET as quite a few players struggle to put the 2 tours together.
Already up to 235th in the Rolex Rankings.