 |
| England’s Melissa Reid |
The third best ranked player in the field is England’s Laura Davies, who is currently fourth on the Henderson Money List after her two victories this season in Germany and New Zealand. Davies is a two-time event champion having won in 2007 and 2008 and feels that the course suits her game perfectly. She almost made it a triple last year but lost to Sweden’s Linda Wessberg at the second play-off hole.
Davies, with 74 tournament victories, is joined by Virginie Lagoutte-Clement of France, ranked sixth on the Henderson Money List after her victory at the Aberdeen Ladies Scottish Open a fortnight ago. The next best ranked player at seventh is Germany’s Anja Monke, the Lalla Meryem Cup winner in Morocco, followed by ninth ranked Vikki Laing from Scotland, the runner-up last week in Finland and tenth ranked Florentyna Parker of England, the ABN AMRO Ladies Open champion.
England’s Trish Johnson, who won the Tenerife Ladies Open in July, joins the field as one of this year’s tournament winners along with Australian Karen Lunn, the Portugal Ladies Open victor and the 2005 event champion Federica Piovano from Italy. Experienced Spaniard Tania Elosegui has also returned from the United States to join the star-studded field.
There are eight Austrians competing, led by Nicole Gergely, who last year became the first Austrian to win a Ladies European Tour title as she triumphed by two shots in the Vediorbis/Randstad Open de France Dames.
The other three professionals are Stefanie Michl, Eva Steinberger and Natascha Grossschadel-Fink, with four Austrian amateurs: Michaela Gasplmayr, Marlies Krenn, Sarah Schober and Marina Stutz.
Golf Club Foehrenwald is set up at 6243 yards for the tournament and is a par 72 (37-35). The course is playing similar to previous years although a number of bunkers have been removed. The course has drained well with a large amount of rainfall over the last three days.
