Sophia Popov continued her love for Royal Troon as she opened up a commanding three-stroke lead heading into the final round of the AIG Women’s Open. American duo Austin Ernst and Lindsey Weaver, helped by a miraculous chip in for par at the 12th, are two shots further back in a tie for fourth place at one-over-par, alongside another German, Caroline Masson.
IG has today announced its continued commitment to women’s golf by extending its title partnership of the AIG Women’s Open by two years, to 2025. Under the new agreement, the championship will now be known as the AIG Women’s Open as part of a rebrand undertaken by The R&A and AIG.
The R&A confirmed today that it intends to play the AIG Women’s British Open at Royal Troon from 20th to 23rd August without spectators due to the COVID-19 pandemic. It will be the first women’s Major Championship to be played this year and will be broadcast globally to more than 11 million fans.
She is only 20, has never played a major championship or even played outside Japan until this week and now Hinako Shibuno finds herself leading the Women’s British Open at Woburn. She takes a two-shot lead into the Sunday but there is plenty of talent queuing up behind her should she slip up on the final day.
It was all getting quite crowded at the top of the leaderboard on day two at the AIG Women’s British Open at Woburn on Friday until the overnight leader, Ashleigh Buhai, who was out late in the day, suddenly put her foot on the accelerator to open up daylight between her and the field.
Defending Women’s British Open champion Georgia Hall is set to tee off at 12.16 on Thursday alongside Brooke Henderson of Canada and Japan’s Mamiko Higa and according to her she is “actually very excited. I don't feel any pressure. It’s really nice for me to be home because I've been in the US the whole year.”
American International Group (AIG) has announced that it will become the title sponsor of the Women’s British Open beginning in 2019.
The R&A has underlined its commitment to enhancing the AIG Women’s Open’s status as a leading major sporting event by announcing five world-class venues for championships being played from 2021 to 2025. The future championship venues for the AIG Women’s Open are: 2021 – Carnoustie 2022 – Muirfield 2023 – Walton Heath 2024 – St Andrews 2025 – Royal Porthcawl .
They have been playing golf at Carnoustie as far back as the 16th century and the classic links layout is sure to challenge golf's best players this week at the AIG Women's Open. The weather is looking variable and the Spiv has his views as to who offers the best value in the betting stakes.
GolfPunk fave Georgia Hall (no less!!) and nine of the past ten Champions will compete at the Women’s British Open for a 40% larger prize fund of $4.5m (circa £3.6m at time of writing) in recognition of the importance of the Championship and women’s golf according to the R&A.
It was disappointing to hear of the cancellation of the Evian Championship but if France was going insist on a 14 day quarantine period for players the decision was inevitable. The loss of the Evian now puts even more importance on the Women's British Open which is due to be played at Royal Troon from 20th to 23rd August.
Georgia Hall hopes to feed off her love of links golf and passion for the AIG Women’s Open as she goes in search of a second Major title at Royal Troon. The 24-year-old is enjoying the buzz of the first women’s Major Championship of the year, an event Hall memorably won in 2018 at Royal Lytham and St Annes.
