The agreement with Golf Australia and the ALPG sees the event – to be played from February 7 to 10 at Thirteenth Beach on Victoria’s Bellarine Peninsula – join the Women’s Australian Open, to be contested the following week in Adelaide, on the LPGA Tour schedule.

With two consecutive weeks of golf in Australia, it is expected a significant number of the world’s best female players will be attracted here to play with prizemoney totaling $2.8 million for both tournaments.

Australia's top-ranked Minjee Lee will defend her Vic Open title in 2019. PHOTO: Getty Images.

Perhaps, more importantly, it will give Australian professionals two opportunities to play well and get a toehold into earning a player’s card on the LPGA Tour.

It is understood the Ladies European Tour will no longer be a sanctioning partner for the Vic Open.

The Vic Open is the only golf event in the world where women’s and men’s championships are contested on the same course with equal prizemoney offered. The men’s Vic Open is co-sanctioned by the PGA Tour of Australasia and the European Tour.