Tvesa Malik, Diksha Dagar, Shubhankar Sharma and Ajeetesh Sandhu. Filepic
Ballymena, N Ireland, July 28: The 2021 Ladies European Tour (LET) season continues this week in Northern Ireland at Galgorm Castle and Massereene Golf Club for the unique ISPS HANDA World Invitational Presented by Modest! Golf.
Following in the footsteps of the ISPS HANDA Vic Open, this is the first time an event of this format has been tri-sanctioned by the European Tour, LPGA and LET in the northern hemisphere.
India’s Tvesa Malik and Diksha Dagar will play alongside men players, which include Shubhankar Sharma and Ajeetesh Sandhu.
The innovative format sees 288 players, 144 men and 144 women take part in the competition, with the women’s field being split equally between the LPGA and the LET.
The tournament will count towards the European Tour’s Race to Dubai and carry Team Europe Ryder Cup points, while the women’s tournament will count towards the Race to the CME Globe for women on the LPGA Tour, the Race to Costa del Sol on the Ladies European Tour (LET) and Solheim Cup points for both Team Europe and Team USA.
One innovation of the ISPS HANDA World Invitational is the fact that the $3 million prize purse will be split equally between the men and the women. The tournament comprises of two separate 72-hole stroke play events for the men and women, who will compete at the same venues at the same time.
The LET winners in the line-up include India’s own Diksha Dagar apart from Tvesa Malik.
Others include five winners of the LET Order of Merit are in the field in Northern Ireland this week. Lee-Anne Pace topped the standings in 2010, Charley Hull triumphed in 2014, while Beth Allen was victorious in 2016. Georgia Hall, who won the Order of Merit back-to-back in 2017 and 2018 will be teeing it up, as well as 2019 champion Esther Henseleit.
Five winners from the 2021 LET season will also be battling it out this week with Pace (Investec SA Women’s Open), Lucie Malchirand (Ladies Italian Open), Stephanie Kyriacou (Big Green Egg Open) and Atthaya Thitikul (Tipsport Czech Ladies Open) all hoping to notch another victory.
