Bedford golfer, Luca Thompson is just one tournament away from the Women’s Open after squeezing through a pre-qualifying competition at Delamere Forest Golf Club in Cheshire on 13 July.
Thompson, who is enjoying splashes of success in her maiden Ladies European Tour season, joins a plethora of golfers from around the world to battle it out for a prized place in the 50th Women’s Open to take place at Royal Lytham & St Annes in Lancashire from 30 July.
The Women’s Open is one of five major championships, alongside the Chevron Championship, the Evian Championship, the US Women’s Open and the Women’s PGA Championship.
It would be Thompson’s first appearance in a major should the Pavenham Park golfer make the cut.
Such is the popularity of the Women’s Open, it takes multiple qualifying tournaments to get there, with entries open to all professionals as well as amateur golfers with a handicap of 0.4 or less.
For Thompson, just 18 holes of the St Anne’s Old Links now stand between her and a shot at stardom.
Thompson defeats the perils of the play-off
With 130 golfers at one of two pre-qualifying events in Delamere Forest, and just 18 qualification spots available, competition across the single day event was fierce.
Playing alongside England’s Lisa Shervill and Germany’s Kimberley Sommer, Thompson – who plays under the Welsh flag – scrambled to a score of one over par, enough to make it to a two-hole play-off that included 13 golfers.
Only three of those would make it through, with Thompson one of the names to secure her spot in the final qualifying tournament that will take place on Monday, 27 July.
The 2026 AIG Women’s Open then takes place at Royal Lytham & St Annes from 30 July to 2 August.
The pre-qualifying success comes after a solid start to her maiden Ladies European Tour season; Thompson’s first campaign as a professional.
Her debut tournament at Wollongong Golf Club in Australia wielded different challenges, including stormy weather and a delayed start thanks to late shuttle buses, but since that day, Thompson has more than held her own in the professional ranks.
Read: Luca Thompson “will compete for a win in the future” after impressive European Tour debut
In 11 LET tournaments so far, ranging from New South Wales in Australia to mainland Europe competitions in countries such as the Netherlands, Germany and Czechia, Thompson has made five cuts, amassing over €8,000 in prize money.
For now, attention is firmly turned to home soil where the road to the Women’s Open takes centre stage and the world of Women’s golf honed in on a major title, won last year by Japan’s Miyu Yamashita.
The qualifying tournament at St Annes Old Links is not televised, but the AIG Women’s Open – with a total prize fund of $10m – will be broadcast on Sky Sports from 9am on Thursday, 30 July.
