Lee-Ann ready for battle at Women’s Indian Open golf

GURGAON - South African Lee-Anne Pace, the leader on the Ladies European Tour Order of merit, is all set for the Hero Honda Womens Indian Open golf, starting here Nov 11.

A total of 123 players have entered the Hero Honda Women’s Indian Open which will be played Nov 11-13 at the DLF Golf and Country Club here.

The prize purse is $300,000, the highest ever in Indian women’s professional golf history.

The 29-year-old Pace, who hails from Mossel Bay in South Africa, won the Sanya Ladies Open in China to take over the top spot from Laura Davies, who will also be in India for the Indian Open. This week Pace is playing the Suzhou Taihu Ladies Open and should move further ahead of Davies in the money race.

Pace has already claimed the Deutsche Bank Ladies Swiss Open, S4C Wales Ladies Championship of Europe and Finnair Masters this year. The Sanya Open was her fourth title.

“It was a goal to come and win this week, or finish top five, just get a little bit ahead. Now I have done that, so we move on to the next one,” said Pace.

But things will not be easy for Pace. Besides the superstar Davies, there is young Thai Phatlum Pornanong, who has won the Indian Open last two times and is very familiar with the DLF Golf and Country Club. Phatlum was third at Sanya Open.

Phatlum was also third at the Thailand Ladies Open this year. She is now looking forward to following in the footsteps of Yani Tseng of Chinese Taipei, who after winning the Indian Open in 2007, went on to become the superstars of world golf and has also won Majors and is ranked in the top-five of the world.