The Centurion Club in St Albans on the outskirts of London, recently hosted the $1 million ARAMCO Team Series Presented by PIF – London on the Ladies European Tour with 108 players in the field.
The format involved two events running parallel to each other – the Individual Event over 54-holes, won by Ireland’s Leona Maguire with rounds of 66, 72 and 73 for a total of 211, eight under par.
The Team Event over 36 holes involved three professionals and one amateur with the top 36 best-ranked players on the ROLEX Women’s World Golf Rankings at the beginning of the week being allocated as Team Captains.
The Captains then invite a professional to be part of their team in a Draft with the final professional being allocated by draw and the four-player team is completed by an invited amateur golfer.
Team Nadaud consisting of Natalie Nadaud (Fr), Kristyna Napoleaova (Cze), Mireia Prat (Spain), and amateur George Brooksbank (Eng) secured victory over Team Hall after a three-hole playoff at the end of Saturday evening.
There was a tie on 268, 24 under par after the 36-holes with the result determined by a sudden-death play-off – with one of the professionals allocated from each team to compete in the play-off.
The captains headed back to the 18th tee as France’s Nastasia Nadaud and England’s Georgia Hall went head-to-head to win the team title.
Both players made an eagle on the first play-off hole playing as a par 5 at 423 yards, and a birdie on the second play-off hole before Nadaud rolled in her birdie putt on the third to secure victory for her team.
“I don’t even know how I handled this! I was so nervous on the first tee,” said Nadaud, who is still a teenager. “I was really afraid I wouldn’t hit the ball. I was so nervous, I was trembling.”
Czechia’s Kristyna Napoleaova, 28 years old and a frequent visitor to Dubai for winter training and practice, was a winning captain in Hong Kong last year in the ARAMCO Team Series, explained, “We were super nervous on the sidelines, it was amazing to watch both Nas [Nadaud] and Georgia [Hall].
“Both of them played incredible golf, I think everyone here enjoyed the play-off. It was so fun to watch. For it to be eagle-birdie-birdie from those positions. It was incredible, well done to both teams.”
Each of the three professionals in the winning team won $32,403.35 with individual champion Maguire winning $69,435.75.
The next ARAMCO Team Series event on the calendar will be held in Asia, 4th – 6th October, 2024.
This week the LET moves onto the fourth major of the year with the $8 million Amundi Evian Championship taking place at Evian Resort Golf Club, France from July 11th – 14th.