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| The 18th hole at Golf de Terre Blanche, Le Riou Course |
The third LET Access Series campaign begins in France with the Terre Blanche Ladies Open at Golf de Terre Blanche in Domaine de Terre Blanche from March 14-16 and culminates with the final event at Golf Club Escorpion in Valencia, Spain, in November.
There are six new tournaments on the LET Access Series this year. They include the GolfStream Ladies Open taking place at Kiev Golf Club on May 22-24, which will be the first ever professional women’s golf tournament in the Ukraine.
The Access Series will also visit Finland for the Women’s Bank Open at Hill Side Golf Club in Helsinki from August 9-11, which, with a prize fund of €30,000, will be the joint-most lucrative event on the schedule.
Another new tournament is the Fourqueux Ladies Open at Golf de Fourqueux, Paris, France, from September 13-15.
There will be a new event in the south of Sweden, which is co-sanctioned between the LET Access Series and Nordea Tour. The Ljungbyhed Park PGA Ladies Open from May 15-17 at Ljungbyhed Golf Club, will carry a purse of €30,000.
A group of 100 girl golfers will follow the on-course tournament action on the final day of the Ljungbyhed Park PGA Ladies Open, which will make the start of a camp organised by the Swedish Golf Federation national team, in which Liselotte Neumann has been involved.
The remaining two new additions to the schedule, which are co-sanctioned between the LET Access Series and Banesto Tours, will take place in Spain. The first of these new tournaments will take place at Golf Club La Peñaza in Zaragoza from April 19-21 with another in Valencia in the middle of November.
There will also be three visits to France with the second tournament of the season, the Dinard Ladies Open, returning to Dinard Golf, Saint Briac Sur Mer, on April 12-14.
The highly popular Azores Ladies Open will be played for the second year at Golf de Batalha on Sao Miguel Island.
The success of the LET Access Series in developing talent over the last two years is demonstrated by its players’ results at the Ladies European Tour’s Final Qualifying School at La Manga Club in early January.
Maria Beautell, Elena Giraud and Alexandra Vilatte all earned an exemption from Pre-Qualifying and went straight to the Final Stage thanks to their performances on the 2011 LET Access Series.
They all gained their full LET cards for the 2012 season, along with a number of other players who also competed on the 2011 LET Access Series. They included Marjet Van der Graaff, Elin Emanuelsson, Celine Palomar, Sahra Hassan, Charlotte Ellis, de Chrisje Vries, Clare Queen, Valentine Derrey, Hannah Burke and Carlota Ciganda, the 2011 Murcia Ladies Open champion at the same venue.
Tour Director Di Barnard said: “We are delighted to deliver a minimum of nine tournaments on the Access Series in 2012 and are confident of adding more events later in the season. We are hugely encouraged by the tremendous support of the federations, venues and players whose superb efforts have contributed to the continued success of LETAS this year.
“We are excited about the year ahead, with new tournaments in Ukraine, Finland, France, Spain and Sweden complementing our return to Terre Blanche, Dinard and the Azores. I am sure that our members will enjoy visiting new countries and playing at these superb venues. The LET Access Series will continue to serve as a platform for elite players to develop and showcase their golfing talent as they gain much valued experience competing in a professional environment on the international tour.”
