Golf Saudi’s Aramco Team Series Presented by PIF is heading into its home-straight for 2024, with the Ladies European Tour’s (LET) annual $5million touring team contest readying for its return to Riyadh later this month.
The Aramco Team Series made the cross-country switch from Royal Greens Golf & Country Club on the Jeddah coast to the capital’s Riyadh Golf Club for the first time last year, bringing with it a record-breaking weekend of golf courtesy of U.S Solheim Cup star Alison Lee, as she marched to a commanding eight-shot victory that saw her set a new low 54-hole scoring record on the LET.
Fresh off the back of her hole-out heroics at last month’s Solheim Cup triumph, Lee could be looking to do the double – with not only a second consecutive victory at the Aramco Team Series – Riyadh, but with potentially two ATS wins in the space of a month.
Before the Aramco Team Series returns to the Kingdom, it will head East for its first ever event in China. The Aramco Team Series – Shenzhen will see two-time ATS individual champion Lee come up against the likes of Ruoning Yin, Xiyu Lin, Muni He, and Angel Yin, as they lead the stellar field set to battle it out at the Mission Hills Resort, October 4-6.
They will be joined by a host of star-names who represent organisers Golf Saudi as ambassadors – including the likes of Lee’s European Solheim Cup rival Denmark’s Emily Kristine Pedersen, England’s Bronte Law, France’s Pauline Roussin Bouchard and Holland’s Anne Van Dam.
In fields stacked with the games best, both of the remaining $1million Aramco Team Series events are firmly up for grabs – which would certainly be in keeping with the impact the Series has had on the LET since 2021.
Due to the Aramco Team Series unique format – in which teams of three professionals and one amateur compete as a team, while the professionals also compete for a concurrent individual title – the Golf Saudi addition to the Tour has seen more than 50 new champions crowned in its four years since launching, seeing in excess of $15million in prize-money shared.
Among those winners have been some of the biggest names in women’s golf, including the likes of Nelly and Jessica Korda, Charley Hull, Georgia Hall, Lexi Thompson and Leona Maguire, plus a plethora of other LET stars.
This year alone has already seen 12 different winners across the Aramco Team Series three events to date, each of which have taken elite level women’s golf to different continents, as a part of Golf Saudi’s ambitions to further grow and globalise the game of golf.
That journey started in Tampa, Florida, where rising German star Alexandra Försterling saw off British pair Charley Hull and Bronte Law to win by three shots in the individual standings at Feather Sound Country Club. Pauline Roussin-Bouchard captained her team of French counterpart Celine Herbin and England’s Meghan MacLaren – joined by amateur LuJain Omar Khalil – to the team title by six strokes, earning all three LET players €32,000 (US$35,000) in prize-money.
A first-time Aramco Team Series visit to Seoul, South Korea, followed in May, with home favourite Hyo Joo Kim captivating a lively local crowd at the New Korea Country Club as she marched to a solo, rain-soaked win. American Danielle Kang helped guide her team of amateur Kyu Ho Lee and LET stars Lily May Humphreys and Tian Xiaolin to the Seoul team title, finishing on 23-under-par.
This year’s Aramco Team Series – London crowned a first-time individual Aramco Team Series champion in Leona Maguire. The Irish golfer pipped her Solheim Cup teammate Georgia Hall and Spain’s Maria Hernandez to the title on the Centurion Club’s short par-five 18th hole, thanks to a terrific approach shot which set her up perfectly for an eagle finish.
It was to be double-trouble on 18 for England’s Hall, who as captain of her team took on the duty of finalising the tournament’s team competition in a play-off with France’s Nastasia Nadaud. After battling through two attempts at finding a winner, Nadaud came out on top at the third time of asking to steer her team – amateur George Brooksbank, Spain’s Mireia Prat and Kristyna Napoleaova of Czech Republic to glory.
And now all eyes turn to the conclusion of the Aramco Team Series for this year, with the final two events of 2024 both teeing off in October.
After Shenzhen, China, the Aramco Team Series presented by PIF returns “home” to Saudi Arabia and to Riyadh Golf Club, October 31 to November 2, which made an ideal start as the Kingdom’s new ATS host course with Lee’s spellbinding performance last year.
If that is anything to go by, another incredible month of Aramco Team Series action lies ahead, as the Golf Saudi organised Series continues to elevate and transform the landscape of women’s golf.
For more information on the Aramco Team Series, visit aramcoteamseries.com
Main image: Tristan Jones/LET
This article was featured in the October 2024 issue of Golf Digest Middle East. Click here for a digital issue of the full magazine.
