The LETAS is back for the penultimate tournament on the revised schedule at the first Santander Golf Tour at Lerma Golf, Spain, which gets underway tomorrow at 9.15am with a flock of champions set to battle it out over 54-holes for the €35,000 prize fund.
Hosted for the first time at the picturesque par-72 layout, which is located in Burgos, 200km north of Madrid, Lerma Golf has a number of interesting holes on the card including driveable par fours and reachable par fives with power and precision a vital ingredient to be victorious this week.
Finland’s Tiia Koivisto, who currently sits atop the LETAS Order of Merit, will be hoping to take full advantage of the favourable scoring conditions as she tries to lock up the all-important prize of a full LET card for 2021, which is awarded to the season-long Order of Merit winner.
The 26-year-old has finished no worse than 11th in the first three events, including a maiden victory at the Amundi Czech Ladies Challenge and gets her campaign underway at 10.54am alongside Spanish star Luna Sobron Galmes and England’s Rachael Goodall.
Both Nuutinen and Sauzon, who sit in second and third place on the Order of Merit, are absent from the field this week, meaning England’s Cara Gainer is her closest rival in the race but with 6,000 points available to the winner, anyone in the top10 can still leapfrog the Finn with a win.
Joining her in the all-star line-up of champions is the most recent LETAS winner Agathe Laisne, who captured the Lavaux Ladies Open in a thrilling play-off in her first-ever LETAS event. In what turned out to be a remarkable debut, the 21-year-old French amateur has since followed up her victory with a 3rd place finish at the European Ladies’ Amateur Championship and arrives at Lerma in fine fettle.
LET winners Nuria Iturrioz and Lydia Hall feature in the group behind Koivisto at 11.05am alongside in-form Magdalena Simmermacher from Argentina, who has been unable to return to her homeland since the Lacoste Open De France, in fear of being unable to return to European competition due to COVID19 travel restrictions.
Home-grown star Iturrioz is one of the biggest names in the field as the three-time LET winner and one-time Symetra champion makes her LETAS 2020 debut.
The smiling Spaniard is one of 28 local talents to tee it up this week from the 83-player field, with as many as 12 Spanish amateurs hoping to emulate the achievements of Laisne at the Tour’s last stop.
Keep up-to-date with the scores and draw for round one – HERE
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