The final major of the LPGA Tour season, the 2021 AIG Women’s Open gets underway this week at Carnoustie, where a world-class field of 144 players will battle it out to be crowned the final major champion of 2021.

The famed links of Carnoustie, often referred to by players and the media alike as “Carnastie” is one of the toughest tests on the rotation of open championships and this week will be no exception, with the course playing at just over 6800 yards.
Prizemoney of 5.8m US Dollars will be on offer this week, with the first prize of 870,000 US Dollars going to the winner.

This year will mark the second time that Carnoustie has hosted the AIG Women’s Open, following the 2011 competition won by Yani Tseng; Carnoustie has also hosted The Open on eight occasions, mostly recently the venue of Francesco Molinari’s win in 2018.

An eight-pronged Australian attack will tee off on Thursday evening Australian time, with recently crowned Evian champion Minjee Lee looking for back-to-back major wins, and her West Australian compatriot Hannah Green hunting down her second major championship.
The West Australian pair look the most likely of the eight Aussies to contend this week.

When Minjee Lee steps onto the first tee at Carnoustie on Thursday morning for her 7:36 am tee time, the memory of her playoff victory at the Amundi Evian Championship two weeks ago will be front and center when she is finally announced on the tee as a major champion.

As Minjee reflected, the win in Evian was to her “like a monkey off my back.”
“Just to be able to call myself a major champion, I think it`s just, you know, it`s pretty special to me. It`s just a really great feeling,” said Lee, now a six-time LPGA Tour winner.
“I really do feel like I can play a bit more freely, especially in the majors. I think I had a lot of expectations that I sort of put on myself to perform well and yeah, you know, I feel like it was kind of coming but I just didn`t know when.”

Lee said she can now set new goals for herself and no doubt one of those is to win this week. The twenty-five-year-old has a solid record on links courses, including finishing third in 2020, and clearly enjoys the challenge of battling the tough condition expected at a Major Championship held in Scotland.
“It`s just really calm and peaceful, so I really like it even though it gets windy and rainy, I just really like the challenge of playing links golf. I`m always just glad to be here.” 

Lee’s younger brother, Min Woo, won his second European Tour event with his victory at the 2021 Aberdeen Scottish Open recently, and big sis will be hoping that proves be a good luck omen this week.

While on face value Hannah Green’s missed cut at the Trust Golf Women’s Scottish Open last week may have been disappointing, it has given the 2019 KPMG Women’s PGA champion a little extra time to recover from her solid performance at the Tokyo Olympics and to prepare for the test ahead of her this week.
“It`s a really cool golf course. Probably one that I`m really excited to actually play a practice round on,’ said Green, who is competing at Carnoustie for the first time. “It has some long holes, some short holes, narrow holes and also some tough bunkers. So you have to be patient this week just like last. Yeah, I`m really excited.” 

Green has made the weekend action all three previous AIG Women’s Open appearances, including a career-best T16 result at Woburn Golf Club in 2019. The “half-Scot” Green, whose mother hails from Fraserburgh, will even have familiar support outside the ropes at this year’s major.
“I`m not sure who is all coming but I know my mom`s cousin has asked for five tickets, so I`m pretty sure they are all going to be family members coming. I feel like I won`t be able to give them a hug or anything but at least I`ll have them out there, and I`m excited to see them from behind the rope.”

The other six Australians in the field competing this week all come into the event in good form, but will need everything to go right if they are to contend for the championship. They will no doubt be looking to the 2020 winner, defending champion Sophia Popov as inspiration.
Playing with no LPGA Tour status in 2020, Popov provided a Cinderella Moment with her win twelve months ago when she shocked the golf world by taking victory at Royal Troon. It was a truly life-changing week for the German, who jumped 280 spots in the Rolex Rankings from 304 to 24, the largest single-week movement since the Rankings began in 2006.
Popov this week will attempt to become the first winner in the AIG Women’s Open’s major history to successfully defend the title.

Joining Green in the field this week is fellow Mt Lawley Golf Club member Kirsten Rudgeley. The 20-year-old amateur, fresh off wins in the past six weeks at the English Women’s Amateur and the Helen Holm Scottish Amateur Open, made her way into the major via a T3 finish at Final Qualifying on Monday. Green said she had dinner with Rudgeley after she qualified and the two were planning on playing a practice round together later on Tuesday. 

“We`ve known each other for a long time. We both played the same club, Mt Lawley, back in (Western Australia). We often try and play and practice together when I`m back home and yes we always message each other whenever I`m away or she`s away. We`ve kept in good contact even if we are not in Australia,” said Green. “She`s a great kid, comes from a great family, so I`m really excited she`s made it and I hope that she can contend on the weekend as well.”

Whitney Hillier rounds off the record four-strong Western Australian contingent competing this week, qualifying as a result of her 15th place finish at last week`s Trust Golf Women’s Scottish Open. Hillier`s final round 65 was one of the best of the week and ensured that she gained one of the precious exemptions for this week.

Sydney’s Steph Kyriacou enters the tournament off the back of a stellar Ladies European Tour season so far - she won the Big Green Egg Open in the Netherlands back in early July and is currently ranked second on the LET Order of Merit standings. Kyriacou is still learning her trade against the world’s best players but her class and talent alone could take her a long way this week.

NSW’s Sarah Kemp, Queenslander Katherine Kirk, and Victorian Su Oh make up the eight Australians in the field, and will encounter a very different test to what they face week in and week out on the LPGA Tour. Kemp is coming off a best-ever major result in Evian, Kirk is always dangerous on links courses, and Oh has had some solid results in recent weeks so it would be easy to make a case for any or all of them to play well this week.  

While the Aussies will all be hoping one of them can triumph this week, the tournament favourite is undoubtedly Rolex Rankings No. 1 Nelly Korda, who will tee it up in Carnoustie for the first time the Olympic Champion following her impressive victory two weeks ago in Tokyo.
Korda, who won the KPMG Women’s PGA Championship in June for her first major win, is joined by the season’s three other major champions – Patty Tavatanakit (ANA Inspiration), Yuka Saso (U.S. Women’s Open) and Minjee Lee (Amundi Evian Championship) – as well as nine past AIG Women’s Open champions – Georgia Hall (2018), Ariya Jutanugarn (2016), Stacy Lewis (2013), Mo Martin (2014), Catriona Matthew (2009), Inbee Park (2015), Sophia Popov (2020) and Hinako Shibuno (2019).  

Another who will be hoping to add the AIG Women`s Open championship to her impressive resume is New Zealand’s Lydia Ko who finished 2nd last week at the Trust Golf Women’s Scottish Open after claiming a bronze medal at the Tokyo Olympics 2 weeks ago. Ko finished with a final round 63, the third time Ko has shot 63 or lower in the final round of an event.
It is certainly worth noting that in her following starts on the other two occasions, Ko finished second and first.

The 24-year-old has resurrected her career in 2021 under the tutelage of American instructor Sean Foley, with the Kiwi adding an extra 20m of distance from the tee and power to her overall game. Ko sits in second place behind Korda on the Race to the CME Globe and it would be a surprise if she didn’t contend come this weekend.

Ko said she plans to take a short break after the major before preparing for the rest of the 2021 season but wants to give it her all this week at Carnoustie.
“It would be definitely nice to cap off this stretch of events on a high. I really enjoy playing links golf. I know at times when I`m out there playing, it`s really tough and you know, there`s a lot of things to think about,” said Ko. “But I haven`t had, I think last year was probably my second-best finish at this championship, so I would love to be able to play more consistently well over here because it is a type of game that I enjoy playing.”

“Once I kind of set foot out here, it was like, okay, I`m coming here to truly enjoy this week, you know, regardless of what happens,” she said. “This is my sixth or seventh week on the road now so obviously it`s kind of the highlight of the summer more or less for myself. But again we are all probably a little tired at this point, but I think this is kind of energizing me a lot just to be here and just the excitement surrounding the event.”

Another of the tournament favourites this week is former world number one and Olympic Gold medalist from 2016, Korean Inbee Park. Park’s prowess in major championships is staggering. According to KPMG Performance Insights, she has 70 major rounds in the 60s since 2007. Her next closest competitor – best friend So Yeon Ryu – trails by 21 rounds at 49 total.

Twelve of those rounds have come at the AIG Women’s Open, proving that Park’s game translates to any golf course on any continent, even the wind-swept links layout of Carnoustie.

“We play in a lot of different conditions and obviously very tough conditions when we come to play Scotland golf courses,” said Park. “Obviously, you need to control your ball really well, under the wind and you have to avoid a lot of the bunkers. It is always tough playing under the wind, but I somehow manage to enjoy the wind and links golf course. This is what we`re supposed to get playing links golf.”

The AIG Women’s Open is also the final qualifying event before the 2021 Solheim Cup, which will be held Sept. 10-12 at Inverness Club in Toledo, Ohio. Team USA Captain Pat Hurst and Team Europe Captain Catriona Matthew will finalize their automatic qualifiers following the completion of play on Sunday, with the captains’ picks announced on Monday.

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TV TIMES (all AEST)
Rd 1 Thursday 19th August 8:00pm - 3:00am FoxSports Channel 505 and Kayo
Rd 2 Friday 20th August 8:00pm - 3:00am FoxSports Channel 505 and Kayo
Rd 3 Saturday 21st August 10:30pm- 4:00am FoxSports Channel 505 and Kayo
Rd 4 Sunday 22nd August 10:00pm - 4:00am  FoxSports Channel 505 and Kayo

For those on the go or without a pay-TV subscription, you can stay up-to-date with all the latest scores, news and information at www.aigwomensopen.com

AUSTRALIAN TEE TIMES (ALL LOCAL GMT)
6:41am Kirsten Rudgeley, Lee-Anne Pace, Luna Sobron Galmes
7:25am Hannah Green, Moriya Jutanagarn, Amy Olsen
7:36am Minjee Lee, So Yeon Ryu, Attaya Thitikul
9:53am Su Oh, Brittany Lincicome, Alice Hewson
10:26am Stephanie Kyriacou, Kristen Gillman, Ursula Wikstrom
2:33pm Katherine Kirk, Maha Haddioui, Lucy Malchirand
3:17pm Sarah Kemp, Pannarat Thanapolboonyaras, Manon De Roey
3:28pm Whitney Hillier, Marissa Steen, Prima Thammaraks

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