A quality field full of international stars has assembled in Ballarat this weekend for the third edition of the Ballarat Icons ALPG Tour Pro-am. Seventy-three players from twenty-six nations will tee it up at Ballarat Golf Club on the 1st and 2nd February, where $30,000 prizemoney will be on offer for the leading 35 players.

Defending champion Marianne Skarpnord will again start as one of the favourites to take out the title, having defeated American star Kim Kaufman and New South Wales youngster Celina Yuan by one shot last year. The 33- year-old Norwegian is coming off the best year of her career on the Ladies European Tour in 2019, where she finished second on the tour’s Order of Merit after being overtaken on the final day of the final event of the season by German Esther Henseleit who claimed the top spot.

Skarpnord boasts four Ladies European Tour wins in her 15-year professional career, including two here in Australia, the 2015 Vic Open and the 2019 Australian Ladies Classic Bonville.

Another international player who comes to Ballarat in good form is Chinese star Xiyu Lin. Lin finished her 2019 season by claiming the Womens China Open in early December, and finished 11th in her first outing in 2020 last week in the US on the LPGA Tour. Lin won the inaugural Ballarat Icons Pro-am back in 2018 and has said she feels completely comfortable on the challenging Ballarat Golf Club layout.

Of the Australian players in the field this week, Whitney Hillier, Steph Na and Paige Stubbs look the most likely to challenge, all three come to Ballarat in good form throughout the 2020 ALPG Club Car Series.

The first round will get underway at 7:00 am local time on Saturday 1^st February. Spectators are welcome and entry is free.

Round one tee-times can be found HERE

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