Spain’s top-ranked international player, Carlota Ciganda, will be teeing up in the Andalucía Costa del Sol Ladies Spanish Open this month. Ciganda, 22nd in the Rolex rankings, missed last year’s Spanish Open at Aloha because the dates clashed with her brother’s wedding, but she has previously competed in seven editions of the tournament. Two of those were as an amateur, and in all her appearances she has never finished outside the top-10 – her best finish being second in 2014.
She will be one of the favourites to improve on that this year and succeed Azahara Muñoz – the second highest ranked Spaniard on the Rolex list (79th) – who in 2016 became the first home country player to win the Spanish Ladies Open.
Marbella-born Muñoz will be defending her title at Royal Guadalmina Golf Club, where she learned to play the game and is an honorary member, from 21 to 24 September.
Still only 27, Pamplona’s Ciganda has enjoyed a stellar career as both an amateur and a professional. She is the only female player to have won Spanish Championships in every category from amateur novice, junior, youth and open to professional.
In 2012 she was both rookie of the year and order of merit winner on the Ladies European Tour, a feat only achieved once before, by the legendary Laura Davies (1985), and she has since gone on to win one team and two individual titles on the US LPGA Tour.
Ciganda and Muñoz will be joined by two other former Spanish Ladies Open champions, Connie Chen and Lee-Anne Pace, as well as 2017 Solheim Cup players Georgia Hall, Florentyna Parker and Suzann Pettersen.
The South Course at Guadalmina, which was inaugurated in 1959, will undergo a change to the usual routing for the 2017 tournament, as the 18th will be played as the first, leaving the par-5 17th as the last hole of the competition. According to the LET, “In the part of the course close to the sea, the order of the holes will be played as the designer Javier Arana had intended, so the 10th, usually the 11th, will be a par-par which runs parallel to the beach.”
