BARWON HEADS, AUSTRALIA – Jan 31, 2018: England’s Georgia Hall is set to begin her defence of the Ladies European Tour order of merit as she opens her season tomorrow in the Oates Vic Open, a tournament she won in 2016.

The event is being contested at 13^th Beach Golf Links in Barwon Heads, near Melbourne and the 21-year-old from Dorset will tee off on Thursday at 8am local time on the Creek Course, alongside Australian Su Oh and American Cheyenne Woods.

The Solheim Cup star said: “I’ve got some great memories, as being here was a really happy moment for me. It’s great to be back after missing out on last year.”

The unique event is played over two courses at 13^th Beach for the first two days, the Creek and the Beach, with a field of 144 players from the Ladies European Tour and ALPG Tour competing in the women’s tournament.

The men’s Oates Vic Open runs simultaneously, with a field from the ISPS HANDA PGA Tour of Australasia teeing off in alternate groups with the women.

The Beach Course, which hosts the weekend’s play, is Hall’s favourite.

She said: “I think they are both quite similar in difficulty, but in different ways. I think the Beach course is a bit shorter and on the Creek course the greens are more difficult. I like both courses, but I think I prefer the Beach just slightly over the Creek.

“Funnily enough, I remember every single golf hole on each course. It’s pretty much the same, but me as a person, I’m a lot different than two years ago, as in my golf and myself. I’ve grown up a lot and my mentality is a lot better and my golf has improved a lot, so I’m back as a more grown-up Georgia and I’m excited for Thursday to get the week going.”

Hall won the event in 2016, the year before it was first sanctioned by the LET and despite seven top-10s on the tour in 2017, she is still looking for her maiden official win on the circuit.

“This is a big tournament for me, simply because it was the biggest win I’ve had and the first tournament of the year is important because I want to get the year off to a good start. I really want to do well this week and hopefully I’ll win,” she said.

“This is my first event of the season, so I’ve had almost two months off. I want to see where my golf is this year. I won it a couple of years ago, so I’m going to go out there and relax and try to hit good golf shots. I’ve had a good break. I think I needed that because I was quite tired at the end of last season. I’m excited to get going, more so than any other year.”

Her preparation in England, where she says, “the weather has been horrendous and a bit depressing,” may stand her in good stead, as conditions were cool, overcast and breezy with showers on the practice days of the tournament from Monday to Wednesday, although the temperatures are expected to range from 20-24C for the tournament.

“The wind here at the moment is very strong so I think it’s all about club selection and keeping the ball down low. I think you have to take your chances on the par fives, as they are not very long this week. That is where you are going to score the most birdies. It’s about hitting the ball straight and holing as many putts as possible,” she said.

The first LET tournament of 2018 gets under way at 7am local time on Thursday.

Mel Reid gets green light from doctor

Mel Reid made the perfect start to 2017 when she won the Oates Vic Open 12 months ago, but a back injury played havoc with the rest of her season.

After weeks of rehabilitation and uncertainty about whether she would be able to play or not, doctors finally gave the Solheim Cup star the all clear to travel to Australia on Thursday last week – and she was delighted.

Speaking at 13^th Beach Golf Links in Barwon Heads on Tuesday, she said: “Whenever you defend a title, it’s always very, very, nice. It was certainly one of my favourite weeks last year and this is where I wanted to start my 2018 season. I enjoyed the golf course. It sets up well for my eye and I’ve played some relatively decent golf. Wherever you’ve won, you have some good memories.”

Reid explained that she injured herself doing household chores. “This is why I shouldn’t do housework! I did it picking something up out of the dishwasher, so obviously I can’t do that anymore! I slipped a disc and I played the season with it, which was fine. It repaired itself and then I did it again in about September. I bulged one of my discs and I probably shouldn’t have played from September onwards, but I did, and that was a mistake. My instinct was saying not to play but I carried on and did a bit of damage to it really, so I shouldn’t have done that. My main goal this winter was to get healthy and I only got the all clear what, two days ago, so I only booked my flight on Thursday night. I haven’t hit many golf balls, so it could be a good thing, or it could be a bad thing, I’m not sure.

“My goal in the winter was to get fit and healthy and I’ve managed to do that to about 75, 80 percent. I’ve not got huge expectations this week, but I’d definitely like to put myself in some sort of contention.”

Aside from great memories and a phenomenal golf course, another important reason for returning was the unique format of playing in alternate groups with the men’s Vic Open field and sharing an equal prize fund.

“There’s lots of equality chat going on at the minute all over the world and the prize money for the guys is obviously much more on the PGA Tour than the LPGA. I don’t find that very acceptable and so it’s nice to have a tournament where it is equal,” she said. “It’s great for the girls and great publicity for us. I hope that the guys enjoy us being around as well. For me, there should be way more tournaments like this at the same venue. I think it would be fantastic for golf.”

The 30-year-old from Derby will get her 2018 season under way at 12:20 local time on Thursday, when she tees off alongside fellow former champions Minjee Lee and Marianne Skarpnord on the Creek Course.

On Other Tours: Georgia Hall prepares to defend Order of Merit crown

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