Cheyenne Woods is ready to defend her RACV Ladies Masters title this week at the RACV Royal Pines Resort on the Gold Coast.

“It feels really good to be back. I feel like the year went by really fast but it’s good to be back at Royal Pines and playing this week – the course looks great and I’m looking forward to playing again.”

Woods, who has a full card on the LPGA in 2015 gave up the opportunity to play in the LPGA event in Bahamas to focus on her preparation for her title defence.

“I had the opportunity to, but I knew this was an important week for me and for the Ladies European Tour to come back and defend. So I wanted to be in the good mindset and a good physical position to come play. I could have played in the Bahamas but I wouldn’t get here until tomorrow so I wanted to make sure I was prepared to come back and defend my title.”

The American is looking forward to the playing for the first time as a defending champion, “Yeah it’s the first time that I will be defending a title so it is a new experience for me but it’s nice.  Like I said, it’s a good position to be in. I feel comfortable at the course, and it’s nice to have my mum with me and my caddy from home like I said so if I was nervous at all I think that that would calm me just having somebody familiar around me all week.”

The players from around the world will be teeing for the first time since the major renovations commenced after last year’s event.  The competitors will be playing nine “new” holes and nine “old” holes.  

The 24 year-old is impressed with what she has seen, “I really enjoy it. I think it adds a lot to the course. Around the greens you can be a little bit more creative just because of the drop-offs and a lot of the false fronts. Number eight is interesting you have the opportunity to go for it and be aggressive or lay up. So I really like the changes that everybody have made here at the course.”

The likes of Rolex World No. 28 Lee-Anne Pace, Laura Davies, Katherine Kirk, Charley Hull, Rachel Hetherington, Marianne Skarpnord and young gun Su Oh will be trying to finish on top come Sunday afternoon.