The rise of the Women's British Open

With popularity in the women’s game fast growing, we take a closer look at one of the few Major’s played outside America – the Ricoh Women’s British Open.

Women’s golf has been popular since the days when Laura Davies dominated for England. But love of the women’s game has sky-rocketed in recent years.

In America alone there are over 6 million female golfers. These new players have been driven to the fairway in their droves for a number of reasons. While most simply love the game, others are enjoying business networking opportunities and the desire to spend more time in the great outdoors. But whatever their main reasons for playing, women certainly are playing, and to great effect.

So now, on the week of the Ricoh Women's British Open, we thought we'd take a closer look at one of the biggest events in the women’s golfing calendar.

From struggler to leader

Celebrating its 39^th birthday this year, the Women’s British Open is one of the highlights of the golfing calendar. Though now it has a prize fund of £3m, for many years it struggled to survive.

The inaugural 1976 event, held just outside York in Fulford, was won by amateur golfer Jenny Lee Smith. It wasn’t until the following year that a professional, Vivien Saunders, won the now much-coveted trophy.

In the early years, there was demand for the event from the growing number of professional women golfers, but it was hard for organisers to get the ‘prestige’ courses to sign up. Instead they opted for quality local courses like Lindrick in South Yorkshire and Surrey’s Foxhills. While the world-renowned Royal Birkdale held a couple of events in the 80s, the Open still struggled by and was even forced to cancel the 1983 competition.

But, following a 10-year stint at Woburn, the competition started to gain momentum and slowly but surely bigger courses like Turnberry and St Andrews played host to the growing event.

Sun Ju Ahn tees off at Royal Birkdale

The Open has since seen some thrilling and spectacular competitions, with stand-outs being Laura Davies winning the 1986 Open in her second year as a professional, and Patty Sheehan breaking the Woburn course record in 1992 with a round of 67.

In 2007, Ricoh took over sponsorship and its inaugural event made history by becoming the first ever professional women’s tournament to be played at the Home of Golf, St Andrews.

In recent years, despite having the first Scottish winner with Catriona Matthew in 2009, the British Open has been dominated by Asian talent with winners from Taiwan (Yani Tseng in 2010 & 2011) and South Korea (Ji-Yai Shin in 2008 & 2012).

This year’s event boasts players from 28 different nations and will include the top 20 ranked female golfers in the world. Reigning champion Mo Martin returns alongside Stacy Lewis, Michelle Wie, Inbee Park and Lydia Ko.

The UK favourites include Charley Hull, Catriona Matthew and Dame Laura Davies, along with upcoming talent, Pamela Prestwell.

Australian Karrie Web at last year’s Open

Player profile: Pamela Prestwell

Glenmuir is very proud that our brand ambassador, Pamela Prestwell, will be playing at this year’s event. Pamela is a professional from Hamilton and is currently taking part in the Ladies European Tour (LET).

The 23-year-old turned pro just 3 years ago. After studying Business at the University of Glasgow, she decided to follow her heart and become a professional golfer.

After some stunning performances on the Ladies European Tour Access Series (LETAS), the official development circuit to the LET, she was ranked 1^st on its Order of Merit. Her highlight – hitting a hole-in-one during the LETAS Dinard Ladies Open in 2012.

She made the move from amateur to professional in style as part of the first Curtis Cup winning GB&I team on home soil since 1996.

She may be a bit of an outsider for this year’s event, but we expect to see her name top of the leaderboard in the coming years.

The Turnberry club house

The course that comes up Trump

This year’s event will be played at the stunning Trump Turnberry Resort.

And let’s hope the weather improves as the notoriously difficult first 3 holes are all at the mercy of the harsh Scottish winds. If the players are lucky, they’ll have the wind at their back for the opening 9. But they’ll be hoping it drops again for the back 9, otherwise they could find themselves driving into swirling gales.

With its jagged coastline, soft sand banks and iconic lighthouse, it’s one of the most scenic courses in the world. But for golfers their focus will be on the tricky 9^th with its blind fairway and the short 15^th, which has a green that falls away quickly.