Top guns set sights on Dimension Data Ladies Challenge

Johannesburg - For eight years, the Dimension Data Ladies Challenge has served as the launching pad for rising stars in the women’s professional game, and this year the title chase is wide open for another up-and-coming talent on the Sunshine Ladies Tour to shine.

The R700,000 54-hole tournament – with a R600,000 purse for the professionals, and R100,000 for the team competition with participating amateurs – starts on Friday with the first of two rounds at George Golf Club. The final round is contested on the Outeniqua course at Fancourt on Sunday.

Nicole Garcia, the champion in 2017, can attest to how useful a victory in the tournament is as a springboard to an international career as she went on to successfully campaign on the Ladies European Tour after her victory.

Last year’s winner, Marianne Skarpnord from Norway, went on to capture her fourth Ladies European Tour title after her play-off win in George, taking the individual title in the Aramco Team Series event, in London, in July.

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Nobuhle Dlamini of Swaziland and Lejan Lewthwaite are two other former champions who have followed Garcia’s path to the Ladies European Tour after their wins in the Dimension Data Ladies Challenge. The duo, along with 2015 champion Stacy Bregman and 2016 winner Lee-Anne Pace, are in action in the Ladies European Tour’s Magical Kenya Ladies Open this week.

The first winner of the tournament, Monique Smit, as well as the 2018 champion Carrie Park of South Korea, will not be teeing it up this week, so with the defending champion and five other former winners not in the field, the path is clear for a new champion to level up.

The hopefuls will be wary of