Top Australian golfers, including major champions Minjee Lee and Grace Kim, are competing in the Women's Australian Open in Adelaide this week. No Australian has won the title since Karrie Webb in 2014. The event returns to Adelaide for the first time since 2020.
The Women's Australian Open is underway in Adelaide, marking the first time since 2020 that the championship has been held there. This edition features two reigning major champions from Australia in the field: Minjee Lee, who won the KPMG Women's PGA Championship last summer in Texas, and Grace Kim, who claimed the Amundi Evian Championship in a playoff over Jeeno Thitikul. Hannah Green recently won the HSBC Women's World Championship in Singapore.
An Australian victory has eluded the home players since Karrie Webb's last win in 2014. Webb, a five-time champion who made her professional debut at the event, hopes the tournament can attract more top LPGA stars. "I think we can make it attractive for certain players to come down for sure," Webb told Fox Sports Australia. "You don’t need 20 (LPGA players), if you get the right two or three of them (in addition to the Aussies), that draws the attention of the world media to that event."
The pressure is palpable for the Australian contingent. "I think it's probably the week that we put the most pressure on ourselves because it is something that we want so badly," said Green. Kim, who won the Australian Women's Amateur at Kooyonga Golf Club in 2021 and debuted in the Open there in 2018, holds the course in high regard. "Kooyonga is always I think at the top of the list in Australia for me," she said.
Lee, who enjoyed playing alongside her brother Min Woo Lee in past combined events, previewed Kooyonga in January and sees it as a solid test. "I really would like to get my name on that trophy," she said. The men's and women's events were separated after complaints that combining them diminished both.
The tournament, co-sanctioned by the LET, has a history of elite winners including Inbee Park, Nelly Korda, Jin Young Ko, Lydia Ko, and Jiyai Shin. Park took the last LPGA co-sanctioned edition in 2020 at Royal Adelaide.
