LET Access Series 2019 Preview- Terre Blanche Ladies Open
Date: 05/04/19
Location: Tourrettes, France
Course: Golf de Terre Blanche
Prize Fund: € 40,000
Defending Champion: Marita Engzelius (Nor) -8 (2 rounds)
This week sees the return of the LET Access Series which is the equivalent to the men's Challenge Tour. The Access Series is a great tour for a number of reasons; It provides a pathway onto the LET offering a number of places for the best placed players on the Order of Merit at the end of the year, previous champions have included Olivia Cowan of Germany (2015) who is now an established name on the LET, and Meghan Maclaren who won in 2017. Meghan has since gone onto 2 LET victories. The winners of the Order of Merit in 2016 & last year are featured below in our 4 players to watch this week.
Other reasons to follow the Access Series are;
A number of big named LET players play the tour when there are no LET events taking place.
If you attend the events you can really get up and close to the players and listen in to every word they say.
The series provides the perfect base for young players to learn tournament golf before stepping up to the LET, every year sees the emergence of a new young star, who will it be this year?
This year features 20 events! including 9 different European countries. Some of the events are co sanctioned with LET as well.
The tournaments are usually very close, which provides exiting finishes.
Below we have selected 4 players to watch in this years Terre Blanche Ladies Open.
Emma Nilsson (Sweden)
Emma was last years Order of Merit winner. Nilsson played some great golf during the Access Series and was very consistent nearly always finishing near the top of the leaderboard. Since winning last season she has established her self on the LET. She is currently 52nd on the Order of Merit with a best finish of 8th at the NSW Women's Open in Australia earlier in the year. She was 55th in South Africa in her last event.
In this tournament last year she finished 2nd, and will want to get back to winning ways here at the Terre Blanche Ladies Open. Now up to 330th in the world rankings.
Manon De Roey (Belgium)
Manon De Roey finished 8th on the LET Access Series Order of Merit last year with the highlight coming when she defeated Lydia Hall in a playoff to win the WPGA International Challenge at Stoke by Nayland. This year has already seen her play a lot more on the full LET, and she is playing well. In her last 4 starts she has finished 20,6,18, and 25th at the South African Open.
She currently sits 21st on the LET Order of Merit, and has risen to 385th in the world. She finished 31st here last year and should do a lot better this year.
Sarah Schober ( Austria)
Sarah Schober won the LET Access Series Order of Merit in 2016. This year she has played a lot of golf even finishing 21st in an event on the Taiwan LPGA.
Schober has had a consistent start to 2019 with a best of 20th at the Australian Ladies Classic and 25th last time in South Africa. Currently 39th on the Order of Merit on the LET she looks ready to break into the top 10 very soon and should go well here. She also finished 31st here last year and is currently 425th in the world.
Natalia Escuriola (Spain)
Natalia played her first event of the season on the Santander Tour in Spain and won comfortably last week. She had 2 top 10's in her last 4 starts on the LET last year so it looks like she has carried that good play into 2019.
The Spaniard finished last season 42nd on the Access Series but did play in less events. She was 17th here last year and if she plays like she did last week in Spain she should challenge here this week. Currently 433rd in the world rankings.
It should be an exiting year on the Access Series and if you follow us on Social Media we will keep you up to date with all the goings on throughout the year.