Four weeks of consecutive events co-sanctioned by the WPGA Tour of Australasia and the Ladies European Tour begins this week, with the Ford Women’s NSW Open.
Wollongong Golf Club hosts the first of a huge run of tournaments, as part of the WPGA Tour of Australasia’s summer calendar, followed by the Australian Women’s Classic and the two Australian Majors - the women’s Australian Open and Australian WPGA Championship.
With just six events of the season remaining, there is all to play for on the WPGA Tour of Australasia Order of Merit, while this is the second event of the LET’s season, which started in Saudi Arabia a fortnight ago with the PIF Saudi Ladies International.
Six regional qualifying events were held for the Ford Women's NSW Open, with Hannah Reeves topping the leaderboard in three consecutive qualifiers and finishing third in another. It was quite the start to life in the paid ranks, as she won the first two events in which she teed it up as a professional.
“It feels really good to be here,” said Reeves. “These next four weeks of big events with the LET girls will be really good. I was off to a good start when I turned pro in October, so hopefully we can carry that over onto these events.
“I think the last couple of years of being an amateur, I played kind of all the events that I wanted to and gained enough experience that I felt like I was ready to go and compete in the pro events. Just adjusting to pro life and yeah, it's been going good.”
In the final qualifier held last week at The Links Shell Cove, 17-year-old amateur Amelia Harris earned a place in the field after winning by two strokes.
The Victorian is making just her sixth WPGA Tour of Australasia start this week, and she will hope to build on her tied-eighth finish at 13th Beach Golf Links at the Vic Open last month.
"I think it will be a really good experience. I'm really excited," said Harris. "I was supposed to play in the WPGA Championship last year, but sadly it was rained out, so I think this is probably my first time out of state. It should be really good.
"It's always a good opportunity to be able to play a pro event and qualifying last week was really nice. I've been playing quite well the last month or so; I'd say I'm in pretty good form and ready for the week."
Also teeing it up this week are past champions Meghan MacLaren, of England, who won back-to-back titles in 2018 and 2019, and New Zealander Momoka Kobori, who triumphed in 2022. There are 34 nations represented at Wollongong Golf Club, with 19 LET winners in the 132-player field.
FORD WOMEN’S NSW OPEN
Venue: Wollongong Golf Club
Prizemoney: $600,000
Live scores: golf.com.au
Facebook: @WPGATour, @LadiesEuropeanTour
Instagram: @WPGATour, @LETgolf
X: @WPGATour, @LETgolf
TV COVERAGE
The Ford Women’s NSW Open is live on Kayo.
*All times AEDT.
Round 3: Saturday 12pm-5pm (Kayo)
Final Round: Sunday 12pm-5pm (Kayo)
PLAYERS TO WATCH
Caitlin Peirce: Current WPGA Tour of Australasian Order of Merit leader
Momoka Kobori: 2023 Women’s NSW Open champion
Hannah Reeves: Winner of three Ford Women’s NSW Open Qualifying events
Meghan MacLaren: Back-to-back winner of the Women’s NSW Open in 2018 and 2019
RECENT CHAMPIONS
2025 Mimi Rhodes (ENG)
2024 Mariajo Uribe (COL)
2023 Momoka Kobori (NZL)
2022 Maja Stark (SWE)
2020 Julia Engström (SWE)
