Pre-Qualifying will be played across 18 holes at The Buckinghamshire in Denham on Monday, 11 July.

Final Qualifying will take place on Monday, 1 August at North Berwick, where after 18 holes a minimum of three golfers will earn a place in the AIG Women’s Open being played from 4-7 August.

The Buckinghamshire, which was designed by Ryder Cup Captain John Jacobs, is home to the Ladies’ European Tour and has previously hosted professional championships, including the Andersen Consulting World Championship of Golf won by Greg Norman in 1997 and Colin Montgomerie a year later. More recently it hosted Open Regional Qualifying from 2011 to 2015, the ISPS Handa Ladies European Masters on four occasions and two Rose Ladies Series events.

North Berwick has staged Final Qualifying for The Open on six occasions. It was also host of The Women’s Amateur Championship in 2008, which was won by reigning AIG Women’s Open champion Anna Nordqvist and held The Amateur Championship with Muirfield in 2010 when Jin Jeong of South Korea won the title.

Zoe Ridgway, Championship Director – AIG Women’s Open at The R&A said, “The Buckinghamshire and North Berwick are outstanding championship venues and will present a tough, but fair challenge to the players aiming to qualify for the 2022 AIG Women’s Open. We would like to thank the venues for their support and look forward to seeing which golfers emerge from qualifying to take their place at Muirfield.”

The AIG Women’s Open will take place from 4 – 7 August 2022 at Muirfield, with tickets now on sale via www.aigwomensopen.com. The Championship will follow government guidance in relation to spectator attendance.

Adult tickets will start from £30 with children aged under 16 years old admitted free of charge. Spectators aged 16-24 years old will be entitled to purchase youth tickets starting from £15. A £5 Mastercard discount is available once per person.

Hospitality options are now on sale with further information available at www.aigwomensopen.com/championsclub.

The AIG Women’s Open is proudly supported by VisitScotland.

For further information on the AIG Women’s Open or to purchase tickets, please visit www.aigwomensopen.com.

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Georgina Blackman. Image copyright Leaderboard Photography

Georgina Blackman showed nerves of steel to win the English women’s amateur championship in a tense showdown at The Wilmslow Golf Club in Cheshire.

The 22-year-old from Chelmsford in Essex held off the challenge of two Curtis Cup players and proven champions to take the title by a shot.

“I’m still shaking,” she said after claiming the trophy. “If you had told me at the beginning of the week that I would win I would never have believed you. It feels really good and it means I can start believing in myself, especially as so many good players were involved.”

Blackman finished on eight-under par, helped by a crucial birdie two on the 17th where she holed out from 30ft. It edged her ahead of her challengers and after a solid par on the last the title was hers.

The runners-up were the Curtis Cup players Sophie Lamb (Clitheroe) and Annabell Fuller (Roehampton), who finished on seven under. Nicola Slater (Lindrick), the English women’ matchplay champion, and Emily Toy (Carlyon Bay), a star of the university circuit, tied fourth on six under.

The players spent the final round locked in the closest of battles which provided a great show for the spectators. Challenges were made as first one led, then another, then two or three of them would tie for the lead as they traded birdies and bogeys.

Toy led by one at the start but she struggled over the opening holes and slipped back – only to resurrect her challenge on the back nine. Lamb, meanwhile looked in great shape after three consecutive birdies on the back nine took her to eight-under, but a couple of bogeys proved too costly, despite a last ditch birdie on 18. Fuller was always in touch with the lead but couldn’t find a birdie in the last six holes. Slater put her foot down early on to get right in the mix and looked in great shape with a 16th hole birdie – only to drop one at the next.

Blackman, meanwhile, played steadily and, as has been her trademark all week, made ground on the back nine. She got into the lead with a 13th hole birdie, dropped back into the tie with a bogey on 15, but then conjured up the winning stroke on the 17th.

It’s her first major win and it comes after she graduated from Western Kentucky University in May with a degree in business communications. The four years she spent there “100% helped my golf, playing every day and getting into a good routine made a big difference.”

But she returned home planning to relax, play some golf in preparation for a full schedule of amateur events next year – and now finds herself a national champion.

“I tried not to think about it, but I knew the scores were close and that I had been playing solid, but I didn’t want to get ahead of myself,” she said.

Click here for full scores

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