Isabelle Boineau will be looking to qualify for a third appearance in The Evian Championship as she prepares to defend her Jabra Ladies Open title this week at Evian Resort Golf Club in Evian-les-Bains, France.
The tournament, which offers two qualification spots for The Evian Championship in September, is the first “Dual Ranking” event on the Ladies European Tour and LET Access Series schedules, with a purse of €120,000.
Last year, when the Jabra Ladies Open was played as a €50,000 LET Access Series event, Frenchwoman Boineau carded rounds of 67, 69 and 70 to finish with a 54-hole score of 206. The 2016 Aberdeen Asset Management Ladies Scottish Open champion then edged Swede Johanna Gustavsson in a one-hole play-off to secure the title.
A successful defence would see Boineau, 28, from Marseille, return home to play in the only Major in continental Europe.
“I enjoy playing tournaments in France and since the beginning of the year we have been playing all over the world, so it will be nice to play at home,” she said. “Also, I have great memories from Evian, of making it to the weekend in 2016 and getting paired with Lexi Thompson on Saturday and Suzann Pettersen on Sunday, which was great.”
“I first came to Evian to watch, the year that Natalie Gulbis won. When I was an amateur I thought it would be too hard to qualify and when I first turned pro I played on the Symetra Tour and then on the LET from 2014. I’m so happy that I have already played twice in The Evian Championship. To qualify a third time would be amazing.”
There is a large French contingent in the field of 120 competitors, with 28 Frenchwomen teeing up, including the 2016 Jabra Ladies Open winner, Valentine Derrey and the 2017 LET Rookie of the Year, Camille Chevalier, who comes from Aix-Marseille Golf Club, like Boineau.
There are also 28 different countries represented by the players in total. Other notable players include former Solheim Cup players Florentyna Parker, Trish Johnson, Becky Brewerton and recent LET Access Series winners Marita Engzelius (Terre Blanche Ladies Open) and Noemi Jimenez Martin (VP Bank Ladies Open) as well as 2017 European PING Junior Solheim Cup team member Julia Engström, 17, the LET’s leading rookie professional.
