Linn Grant (Photo by Tristan Jones/LET)

By Matt Smith
The Ladies European Tour Skafto Open takes on more significance than usual this week as two local players will be fighting on two fronts.

Set in Fiskebäckskil area on Sweden’s west coast at Skafto Golf Club, the $250,000 event sees the two leading lights in this season’s LET Race to Costa Del Sol vying for victory on home soil.

France’s Pauline Roussin-Bouchard will be out to defend the crown she won 12 months ago for her maiden LET title, but a lot of the talk amid a stellar field will centre on Sweden’s own Maja Stark, the Race leader, and Linn Grant, her nearest challenger.

Both Stark and Grant made their LET debuts on this course last year, with Grant finishing in a tie for second, one stroke behind Roussin-Bouchard alongside Magdalena Simmermacher.

Simmermacher will be back and ready to challenge at the top of the leaderboard once again this week, with the Argentine still searching for her first win on tour, while Lee-Anne Pace, Ana Peláez Trevino and Meghan Maclaren will also be teeing it up. Lydia Hall and Whitney Hillier both finished in the top 10 around this track last year, and both will be ready to compete once again, with Hillier looking to maintain her place in the top 10 of the Race to Costa Del Sol rankings.

As well as Grant and Stark, there will be a raft of Swedes looking to impress on home soil this week, with six-time LET winner Caroline Hedwall among those in the field, as well as Jessica Karlsson, Camilla Lennarth, Linda Wessberg and Lina Boqvist.

Louise Duncan will also be looking to impress this week, with the Scot coming into the tournament off the back of an impressive professional debut at the AIG Women’s Open earlier this month where she finished in the top 20.

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