VP Bank Ladies Open preview & 4 to watch!
Date: 03/05/19
Location: Switzerland
Course: Gams-Werdenberg Golf Club, Gams
Prize Fund: €45,000
Defending Champion: Noemi Jimenez (Spain) -12 (3 rounds)
The VP Bank Ladies Open returns this year, however, with a few changes! The prize money has been increased to 45,000 euros and the tournament will be played with a new format for the first time, the "Mätzler-Mix", named after the event promoter, Guido Maetzler. The title sponsor, VP Bank, will also reward every hole-in-one with a 50-gram gold bar.
There is a top field this week as the LET event in Dubai is limited to only 56 players.
The first two rounds will be played in stroke play format and the final day will involve a number of 9 hole match play matches.
Caroline Rominger one of the home favorites this week took time out of her practice and explained to us how the final day will work;
The top 48 players after 2 rounds of stroke play will progress to the final day. They will be ranked 1-48 depending on their finish in the stoke play. The first set of match play matches will be the number 1 ranked player against the 48th and so on. After these matches each player receives a new ranking for example if number 1 wins they stay at number 1, however if number 48 beats the number 1 they will be ranked 24th for the 2nd round.
Therefore it is key to finish near the top of the stroke play event because only the top 4 players at round 2 can win the event. So it will be the number 1 ranked player against the 4th and 2 vs 3 for the semi finals. The rest of the players compete to finish as high as they can in the rankings.
Except for the final its always the highest ranked player always advances if they are level after 9 holes. Only the final will go to extra holes.
Below we look at 4 players that could win this weekend.
Isabella Holpfer (Am) (Austria)
Isabella Holfer is making her Access debut this week at this new event. I had the pleasure of watching Isabella at Hankley Common in the British Open Qualifying where she easily clinched top spot. Last year she won the English Open Stoke Play Championship and was 2nd in the girls British Open. She also won the Slovenian Amateur Championship. She currently sits 15th on the European Amateur golf rankings and there is no reason why she should not do well here this week and the match play style last day may suit her.
Elena Moosmann (AM) (Switzerland)
The 2nd amateur on our list is Elena Moosmann, who is playing at home this week. Elena is currently 5th on the European golf rankings and 78th in the World rankings. Last year she won the Swiss stroke play championship and finished 19th at the youth Olympics. This year she was runner up at the European nations cup in Spain and finished 3rd at the Italian Amateur Championship. Again Elena could like the format of this event and will want to play well on home soil.
Sarah Schober (Austria)
Our 2nd Austrian on the list is Sarah Schober. Sarah won the opening event of the season on the LET Access in a playoff. She will look to make it 2 out of 2 here in Switzerland. 2019 has been good for Schober who has risen to 356th in the world with two top 20 finishes on the LET so far this season. Her good start to the season sees her sit 17th on the LET order of merit. She finished 13th last week at the Lalla Meryem Cup on the LET and a similar perfomance here will see her challenge for the title. Earlier this week Schober said “I like the new format very much, it's interesting and exciting for the players and spectators. Above all, everything is possible in match play, you can take more risk. I also think it's great to think about how to make tournaments more attractive. I will not change my game on Sunday in the match play significantly. But I have to admit that it's tempting for me to take more risk with this mode,”
Manon De Roey (Belgium)
Manon had a bad back 9 in round 2 last week in Morocco where she missed the cut by 1 shot. However, ignoring that she has had a good start to the 2019 season. She finished 6th at the Canberra Classic and sits 38th on the LET order of merit. She finished 6th in the opening event on the Access Series and should bounce back from the missed cut here this week.