Kristianstad Golf Club (KGK), near Kristianstad, Sweden, has been confirmed as the venue for the tournament, which carries a €30,000 prize fund. The event will feature 126 competitors from acrossEuropeand further afield.
Kristianstad Golf Club has two 18-hole golf courses and the event will be played on the original Åhus East course, the first nine holes of which were founded in 1924 before being extended to an 18-hole course in 1969. The Ladies European Tour visited the par-72, tree-lined course in 1986, when Australian Corinne Dibnah triumphed in the Kristianstad Ladies’ Open.
This year’s tournament will be played ahead of The Ljungbyhed Park PGA Ladies Open, which has been moved back one day from 15 – 17 May to 16 – 18 May. This brings the number of LETAS tournaments in the Nordic region to three following last month’s announcement of the Norwegian Ladies Challenge, which will take place at Losby Golf Club near Oslo from 4-6 July.
“We welcome the new international touch when three of 10 Nordea Tour tournaments become part of the LET Access Series. We believe that it will develop especially the players, but also the Nordea Tour”, says Louise Permelin, CEO of the Swedish Golf Tour Ltd, which manages and develops the Swedish Pro Tour Nordea Tour, which has existed since 1984 and works as an important stepping stone for the future golf stars to go on to LET and the LPGA.
Di Barnard, Tour Director, LET Access Series, said: “We are delighted to add the Kristianstad Åhus Ladies Open to the 2012 LETAS schedule. The Nordic region is an important one for the development of women’s golfing talent and we look forward to a successful working partnership in this and future years.”
The 2012 LETAS international schedule now features 11 tournaments in seven different countries acrossEurope. The season will start with the Terre Blanche Ladies Open, taking place at Terre Blanche, nearCannesinProvence, from March 14-16.
LET Access Series is ‘feeder tour’
The LET Access Series (LETAS) launched in 2010 as the official feeder tour to the Ladies European Tour. The objective of LETAS is to provide greater playing opportunities for female professional golfers. All female professional golfers and amateurs with a handicap of 3 or better are eligible for membership of LETAS, providing they are over 18 years of age.
The top three players on the 2012 LETAS Ranking will earn membership of the Ladies European Tour for the 2013 season, while players in fourth to 15th positions will have the opportunity to progress to the final stage ofLETQualifyingSchool, thereby skipping the first qualifying event. If the top three players are already exempt for the Ladies European Tour then the cards will be available to the next best players inside the top 10 on the 2012 LETAS Ranking. If a player in fourth to 15th position is already exempt toFinalQualifyingSchoolfor the 2013 Ladies European Tour season, then the next non-exempt player down to 30th position on the 2012 LETAS Ranking will be offered a place atLETFinalQualifyingSchool.
LET Access Series www.letaccess.com