Aramco Team Series Sotogrande confirms top-class field in $1m event

The Aramco Team Series continues to prove a big draw for the world’s leading golfers as the Ladies European Tour (LET) revealed a raft of international stars heading to Sotogrande, Spain for the second of its four $1 million tournaments.

European Solheim Cup heroes Georgia Hall, Charley Hull and Bronte Law have been confirmed for the three-day event — organized by Golf Saudi and the LET — taking place at La Reserva Club from Aug. 5 to 7.

They will be joined by their 2019 captain Catriona Matthew, with the Scot set to use the Aramco Team Series Sotogrande’s unique team format to run an eye over some of her key players ahead of September’s rematch with the US.

Hall, the 2018 AIG Women’s Open winner who finished fourth in the inaugural Aramco Team Series event in London, said: “I loved the experience in London. Outside the Solheim Cup it’s rare to have an opportunity to play team golf — so not only is this a fabulous innovation for the tour that’s exciting to continue to be a part of, but it’s also another great opportunity to impress the captain.”

Representing the US in the Aramco Team Series Sotogrande field will be 2021 KPMG Women’s PGA Championship runner-up and four-time US Solheim Cup player Lizette Salas, with fellow American Alison Lee also in the field. They will be joined by Thailand’s Moriya Jutanugarn, the 2013 LPGA Rookie of the Year, and 2018 LPGA Rookie of the Year Lindsey Weaver.

The Aramco Team Series Sotogrande is the second of four events to take place this year, following its London debut two weeks ago. It precedes both the Aramco Team Series events in New York (Oct. 14 to 16) and Jeddah (Nov. 10 to 12), with the event in Saudi taking place just days after the Aramco Saudi Ladies International presented by the Public Investment Fund, held from Nov. 4 to 7.

Each Aramco Team Series tournament sees 36 captains lead teams of four players, who together compete to shoot the lowest combined score over three days of golf.

All teams feature three LET players paired through a unique draft system, in which captains choose one player and are randomly assigned another. The fourth member of each team is an amateur golfer — a position open to all golfers in Spain for the Sotogrande event through the tournament’s world-first Team Up competition.

That means it could fall to an amateur golfer to hole an LET tournament-winning putt to secure prize money for the professional players, a feat unique to world golf.

London’s inaugural event saw Team Cowan — captained by Germany’s Olivia Cowan and featuring fellow German Sarina Schmidt, India’s Diksha Dagar and amateur Andy Kelsey — come out on top.

Marianne Skarpnord of Norway sank a 12-foot putt on her final hole to win the individual competition, her fifth LET title, and will also play in Spain.

“It was awesome to win and go down in history as this tournament’s first ever winner,” she said. “London was so much fun so I already can’t wait to do it again in Sotogrande next month.

“Events like the Aramco Team Series go to prove that so much great work is being done to elevate women’s golf, so I know the opportunities I have available for these magical moments are only growing, which is fantastic, and great to be a part of.”