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| Terre Blanche Ladies Open winner Caroline Afonso from France |
A strong field of international players from 18 different countries are preparing to tee up at the Dinard Ladies Open at Dinard Golf in Brittany, north-western France, from 15-17 April, this week.
France will be the best represented country in the second LET Access Series event, with 69 French players in the field. Caroline Afonso leads the LETAS ranking after her maiden professional victory at the Terre Blanche Ladies Open less than a fortnight ago.
French players also include Anne-Lise Caudal, Ludivine Kreutz, Virginie Lagoutte-Clement and Jade Schaeffer, all of whom are former winners on the Ladies European Tour and Lucie Andre, the number one French amateur.
England will have the next highest number of players with nine, including Henrietta Zuel, who was fourth at the recent Lalla Meryem Cup in Morocco on the LET. Four players from Italy are competing including Sophie Sandolo and Margherita Rigon, who after the first LETAS event are tied for second and fourth place on the current ranking respectively.
The Netherlands and Sweden each have three representatives in the field, while Belgium, Spain, Finland, Switzerland and Wales have two players each.
There is a single representative from each of Canada, Denmark, Estonia, Greece, Morocco, Norway, Scotland and Slovakia.
The top finishing player at the Dinard Ladies Open, not otherwise exempt, will receive an invitation to play at the Allianz Ladies Slovak Open, due to take place at Gray Bear Golf Club from 27-30 May.
The inaugural event which gets underway in Talé in the Slovak Republic this spring will boast €350,000 in prize money and is fully sanctioned by the Ladies European Tour.
After tackling the challenge set by Le Riou at Terre Blanche two weeks ago, the LETAS players will compete at another stunning French venue and one which is rich in history.
Designed by Scottish architect Tom Dunn in 1887, Dinard Golf is one of the oldest courses in continental Europe and the second oldest in France after Pau. Laid out alongside France’s Emerald Coast, players enjoy sea views from all 18 holes, each of which has its own individual name (the dog’s paw, the complete disaster, etc.) The course is neither long nor tiring, so it may deceive the unwary into thinking that it is easy, but the final score tells the real story. This course is trickier than difficult, with its sandy soil, undulating fairways, small, high, very fast greens and many bunkers; it also has very few trees, but plenty of broom and gorse bushes.
The Dinard Ladies Open will be the second of three events on the 2010 LET Access Series (LETAS) calendar, following the Terre Blanche Ladies Open. The third event will be the La Nivelle Ladies Open, from 9-11 June. The LET Access Series is the official feeder tour to the LET and the winner of the circuit will earn a place amongst Europe’s elite in 2011.
