The Women's Australian Open is a women's professional golf tournament played in

Australia Australia, officially the Commonwealth of Australia, is a Sovereign state, sovereign country comprising the mainland of the Australia (continent), Australian continent, the island of Tasmania, and numerous List of islands of Australia, sma ...

, operated by Golf Australia and the WPGA Tour of Australasia, long co-sanctioned by the

Ladies European Tour The Ladies European Tour is a professional golf tour for women which was founded in 1978. It is based at Buckinghamshire Golf Club near London in England. Like many UK-based sports organisations it is a company limited by guarantee, a legal stru ...

(LET). Beginning with the 2012 event, it is also co-sanctioned by the U.S.-based LPGA Tour. In 2008, it was the second-richest women's golf tournament on the ALPG Tour, with a prize fund of A$500,000, and was raised to A$600,000 in 2010. With the co-sanctioning by the LPGA, the total purse was nearly doubled, and was also fixed in

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. The purse was US$1.1 million in 2012, and increased again to its current level of US$1.2 million for 2013. Since 2011, the tournament's name has been the ISPS Handa Women's Australian Open. The Australian Ladies Open was founded in 1974 as a 54-hole event, but folded after 1978. It was resurrected in 1994 as the Women's Australian Open, this time as a 72-hole event. Annika Sörenstam won that year, which was her first professional win. It was also Karrie Webb's professional debut, and she would later win the event five times. Starting in 2000, the Ladies European Tour began co-sanctioning the tournament. Following the 2004 event, sponsorship difficulties caused the tournament to stop once again, but after a two-year hiatus the tournament returned in 2007. The Women's Australian Open usually moves between various courses around Australia, except from 1995 through 2002 when it was held at the

Yarra Yarra Golf Club The Yarra Yarra Golf Club is a private golf club in Australia, located in Victoria at Bentleigh East, a suburb southeast of Melbourne. It is one of the eight Melbourne Sandbelt championship courses and is renowned for its par-3s. It has hosted t ...

in Melbourne. The 2008 event was held at

Kingston Heath Golf Club Kingston Heath Golf Club is one of the premier golf clubs in Australia, located in Cheltenham, Victoria. The course is situated on the sandbelt region in the southeast suburbs of Melbourne famed for its golf courses, with Kingston Heath consis ...

. For several years after its return in 1994, the Women's Australian Open was played early in the ALPG schedule, usually in November. Starting in 2000, it was changed to be played at the end of the schedule in February near the

ANZ Ladies Masters The RACV Gold Coast Challenge was a golf tournament played in Australia. It was one of the leading tournaments on the ALPG Tour and was co-sanctioned by the Ladies European Tour (LET) since 2001. Between 1997 and 2000 it was an event on the LPGA ...

, to allow both tournaments to be part of the Ladies European Tour. Since the Women's Australian Open was played from 12 to 15 November 1998 during the 1998/1999 ALPG season, it was therefore not played during the 1999 calendar year. The 2012 tournament was played at the Composite Course at Royal Melbourne, the championship course comprising 12 holes from the West course and six from the East course. The Composite Course is considered one of the top courses in the world, and was used for the Presidents Cup competitions in

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and

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. Through 2011, a women's professional competition had never been held on it; the 2012 Women's Australian Open was the first. The event was won by Jessica Korda after an historic six-player playoff, only the second in ALPG history. Korda holed a birdie putt on the second playoff hole to claim her first LPGA Tour victory. In 2013, the tournament moved to Royal Canberra Golf Club, and in 2014 to the Victoria Golf Club near Melbourne. In 2016 the event moved to Adelaide and was played there until 2020. In 2021, it was not played due to the COVID-19 pandemic. In 2022, the tournament was played at Victoria Golf Club and

. In a world-first for golf, the ISPS Handa Australian Open brought together the national men's and women's Open events, along with the All Abilities Championship. The men's Open and the women's Open had equal prize money of as the Open returned to Melbourne for the first time in several years. In 2022, the event fell during the LPGA's off-season and during the tour's final stage of qualifying school and therefore co-sanctioning the event with the LPGA was not possible.

Tournament names

*1974: Wills Australian Ladies Open *1975–1978: Wills Qantas Australian Ladies Open *1994–1996:

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Women's Australian Open *1997: Toyota Women's Australian Open *1998–2004: AAMI Women's Australian Open *2007–20:

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Women's Australian Open *2009: Women's Australian Open *2010: Handa Women's Australian Open *2011–present: ISPS Handa Women's Australian Open

2020 course layout

Royal Adelaide Golf Club Source:

Winners

¹Tournament shortened to 36 holes due to rain
^POWon after playoff

Course record

References

External links

*
Coverage on the LPGA Tour's official siteCoverage on the Ladies European Tour's official siteCoverage on the Ladies ALPG Tour's official site
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