When the AIG Girls’s Open first introduced 50 years in the past, the sphere was once made up of most commonly amateurs and prize cash – for all the match – stood at simply £500.
Step ahead a half-century and the match is unrecognizable to the only Jenny Lee Smith received at Fulford Golfing Membership in 1976, having developed into one of the crucial largest occasions within the {golfing} calendar.
While the inaugural version noticed pros Vivien Saunders and Gwen Brandom amongst the ones contributing their very own cash in opposition to the prize fund, the match has since long past from power to power with enhanced infrastructure and handbag will increase.
A celebrity-studded box returns to Royal Lytham & St Annes for the fiftieth version this week, are living from Thursday on Sky Sports activities, the place the sector’s very best will problem for primary glory and a report $1.5m (£1.25m) winner’s percentage of a $10m (£7.5m) prize handbag.
Nelly Korda is likely one of the favourites to problem for extra primary luck on the AIG Girls’s Open
“I do not recognise it from once I used to play it,” Dame Laura Davies, who made a report 43 consecutive AIG Girls’s Open appearances, informed Sky Sports activities. “It isn’t an add-on anymore, it is a stand-alone primary championship of golfing and it is a very good match.”
From early demanding situations to primary historical past
Over 50,000 lovers are anticipated at Royal Lytham & St Annes throughout match week, having damaged other attendance information every of the former 3 editions, whilst AIG have greater than trebled the prize cash on be offering since turning into name sponsors.
Watch highlights from the 2025 AIG Girls’s Open name, the place Miyu Yamashita claimed a maiden primary victory
A rocky begin to the match’s historical past noticed it now not have a sponsor till 1979 and to begin with battle to draw venues to host the development, whilst the 1983 version was once cancelled because of a loss of investment and left its long term beneath risk.
The LPGA Excursion had it as a part of their 1984 time table however would not once more for some other decade, with Burberry (1985) and Weetabix (1987-1993) a few of the sponsors all the way through that stint, with the match taking time to develop in stature.
“My first actual Open was once in 1980 at Wentworth at the East Direction, then we went as much as Newcastle (1981) and there was once no one there,” Davies added. “Then we went to Woburn for a very long time and the galleries have been truly just right.
Dame Laura Davies received the development in 1986, ahead of it become a big, then made her ifnal look in 2023
“I received my Girls’s Open at Royal Birkdale (1986) and I believe there was once a few hundred folks strolling round at the ultimate spherical, so that you simply can not examine to how it’s now – it has grown hugely.”
The match was once first recognised as a big in 2001, changing the development now referred to as the Canadian Girls’s Open, whilst it best began immediately being organised by way of the R&A – fairly than the Women’ Golfing Union – in 2017.
The Outdated Direction at St Andrews, Carnoustie and Royal Troon are all on The Open roster and feature been contemporary venues for the AIG Girls’s Open, whilst prolonged TV protection and award-winning participant amenities have helped the match thrive.
Highlights from the overall spherical of the 2024 AIG Girls’s Open, the place Lydia Ko inspired to win at St Andrews
“I believe the most important factor is that we move to some of these nice hyperlinks classes,” Davies defined. “Clearly prize cash is a huge factor and is going up and up annually, which the gamers unquestionably love, however it is also the amenities.
“Whilst you get there and spot the infrastructure, the participant living room and the services and products for the gamers, it simply makes you’re feeling comfy and makes you’re feeling particular. Everybody’s taken care of as a participant and so they do a super process.
“Clearly girls’s game being extra on TV now is helping, as a result of folks need to come and spot the characters they see on TV, and you have noticed that gallery-wise and what sort of they have got grown. I will’t say anything else unhealthy about this match!”
Massive week forward at Royal Lytham…and some other British winner?
Featured Workforce protection will supply 3 hours of additional motion over the primary two rounds of the overall girls’s primary of the yr, the place Nelly Korda appears to finish the occupation Grand Slam and Haeran Ryu chases a 3rd consecutive primary name.
Highlights of the United States Girls’s Open, the place Nelly Korda registered her 2d successive primary name
The final two winners of the AIG Girls’s Open at Royal Lytham have each been British, with Georgia Corridor’s 2018 luck following Catriona Matthew’s 2009 win, whilst Charley Hull and Lottie Woad are amongst the ones taking a look to increase that streak on house soil.
“I spoke to a few the caddies that have been at Royal Birkdale [for The Open] and feature been there [Royal Lytham] – they have got stated it is truly fiery,” Davies stated. “Bunkers are going to be a nightmare, as a result of they are so much harsher than those at Royal Birkdale.
“Hull by no means truly were given in rivalry on the Evian Championship and we will have to attend and spot whether or not her direction control works right here. She will win a big – she’s too just right to not.
“From what I listen from the entire different caddies about Lottie [Woad], she’s very cast. She’s now not flashy, has a truly just right temperament and takes all of it in her stride. If you’ll have that temperament, then it is a large factor.”
Who will win the AIG Girls’s Open? Watch all through the week live to tell the tale Sky Sports activities. Reside protection of the hole spherical starts on Thursday with Featured Teams from 9am, forward of complete protection from 1pm on Sky Sports activities Golfing.
