The best players from the LET Access Series, the second European division, and several champions from the LET, the first division, meet in mid-August for the Bossey Ladies Championship. This brand new stage of LETAS, organized by Pitch & Play on the magnificent Haut-Savoyard course near Geneva, is unanimous among golfers, ever more looking for tournaments to play.

Delighted players, media present

The date is coming ! In two weeks, the golfers of the LET Access Series (LETAS), as well as several players of the Ladies European Tour (LET) will be in full action at the Bossey Ladies Championship. Driven by the Pitch & Play agency - an event structure created in 2016 by the Swiss Alexis Sikorsky - this brand new event "offered" to European professionals is unanimous. In a period when women's tournaments are not always numerous enough, nor always accessible, the players of the two divisions are delighted with the birth of the Haut-Savoyard stage of LETAS (see also the interview with French Lucie André) . And the prospect of being followed on this occasion by several national media sensitive to their circuit (Le Figaro, Journal du Golf, Golf +, Golf Channel, Swing Féminin…) represents a plus.

Support from FFGOLF, ASG and ASGI

It is officially under the LETAS label that the Bossey Ladies Championship is launching its first edition, thus integrating the 2017 calendar during the season. The tournament will be played over three rounds of stroke play from Tuesday August 15 to Thursday August 17 (pro-am on Monday 14). The cut of Wednesday 16 will retain the best 45 and tied at the end of the first two rounds. In total, the field has 90 players, including 7 amateurs. The French Golf Federation has supported the Pitch & Play project from the start and provides a grant and logistical assistance to the tournament. The ASG, the Swiss Golf Association, as well as the ASGI, the Swiss Association of Independent Golfs, are also supporters of the event. Players of 19 nationalities will do battle on a French golf site but very close to Geneva and its airport.

Derrey, Boineau and André eagerly awaited

The Bossey Golf & Country Club course, designed by Robert Trent Jones Jr in 1985 on the foothills of the Salève plateau, is a par 71 of 5 meters. Hilly, super technical, it has “alpine” greens, inclined and fast. “Ice” in the jargon of the pros… It will be necessary to master the edging! This playing field has already attracted some golfers present in the field and who had discovered it in the past during high-level amateur meetings.

Among the entries, there are 3 French women who won LETAS tournaments in 2017. These are Valentine Derrey (1st in the Terre Blanche Ladies Open and 1st in the Forget Foundation PGA Championship in Sweden), Isabelle Boineau (1st in the Jabra Ladies Open / Qualification for the Evian Championship) and Lucie André (1st in the Foxconn Czech Ladies Open). Note that the first two also have victories on the LET in previous seasons.

13 winners, including Meghan MacLaren

In total, the first edition Bossey Ladies Championship records the arrival of no less than 13 players who have already triumphed on the LET Access Series circuit and thus benefit from a category 4. Among them, the young Englishwoman Meghan MacLaren, 23, in the lead to the Order of Merit (August 1). MacLaren is ahead of Valentine Derrey, 2nd, her compatriot Charlotte Thompson 3rd, Isabelle Boineau, 4th, Lucie André, 5th, and the Belgian Manon de Roey, 6th. For Miss Meghan, it will undoubtedly be a sensitive step, close to the heart. The Briton is indeed part of Team Pitch & Play, a group of professional players (Mike Lorenzo Vera, John Daly…) made up of Alexis Sikorsky, who is a member of the Bossey Golf & Country Club and therefore also the promoter of the tournament. Bossey, last stop for LETAS before the final

In the European calendar, the French date arrives at a key period. A boon, already, for LET players. Because between August 1 and September 20, only three extremely closed events are on the program: the Women's British Open from August 3 to 6, the Solheim Cup in Des Moines (Iowa) from August 18 to 20 and the Evian Championship. from September 14 to 17. For regular LETAS golfers, the stop at Bossey takes place between the antepenultimate stage at Sundsvall Golf Club in Kvissleby (from August 2 to 4 in Sweden) and the final, the WPGA International Challenge, from September 28 to 30 at Stoke by Nayland (United Kingdom). The opportunity to score a maximum of points to appear in the final top 5 and thus obtain a playing right on the LET in 2018. Especially since the endowment in Bossey - 45 euros - happens to be, just after that of the Jabra Ladies Open last June in Évian, the second most beautiful of the season on LETAS. -NV

Interview with Lucie André

Two weeks before the Bossey Ladies Championship, the Frenchwoman, winner of a LET Access Series stage on June 24th in the Czech Republic, gives her opinion on the current season and on the brand new tournament on the calendar for August

P & P: Lucie, how do you see the new stage of LETAS - the Bossey Ladies Championship - that the Pitch & Play agency is organizing from August 15 to 17, 2017 in Bossey, in Haute-Savoie?

LA: This is very good news for us, the players! The more tournaments we have on the calendar, the happier we are! So really, we're not going to say no! In addition, there will be a very good plateau. With the Solheim Cup being held at the same time in the United States, and nothing else on the Ladies European Tour program, a lot of LET players will be added to the best players in LETAS. So yes, it will be very positive to play Bossey!

P & P: Do you know the Haut-Savoyard route, which is close to Geneva and Annemasse?

LA: I've never played it. But I only heard good things about it. Very nice course, it seems. Very hilly, very physical… Having one more stage in France is also interesting for us French women. Bossey is not even very far from the house! About 1h10 from Bourg-en-Bresse where I am based.

P & P: You have a good past on the LET (four top 10s in all, including a 4th place in 2011 at the French Open). How do you see yourself today: player of LET, the first European division? Or LETAS, the second division?

LA: I spend my entire 2017 season on LETAS. So full-time player of the second division. It is a choice that I made voluntarily after a catastrophic end of the season on the LET in 2016. Since I turned pro, in 2011, I had always maintained my category on the LET ... So there, frankly, I didn't see me going back to the cards to try to regain my place. These LET cards are always a tough week. Really not easy on the mental side. I didn't want to put a lot of pressure back on myself. All this to earn the right to only play six tournaments on the LET. This year, on top of that, with lots of girls from the LPGA Tour coming back to Europe to score points in the run-up to the Solheim Cup, it further complicated matters. Small fields where you enter at the last minute ... Significant investments with a lot of plane tickets over 1000 € ... And in terms of the calendar, it was a bit of a desert!

P & P: On the LETAS side, on the other hand, with the Bossey Ladies Championship which has been added to the initial 2017 program, the players have no less than twelve tournaments to play between March and the end of September… So really the right choice for you?

LA: Ah yes! The gains, of course, are lower on the LETAS than on the LET. But the tournaments are really nice. I really like the atmosphere. At first, small concern, my category turned out to be less good than I had imagined. Fortunately, in March, at the start of the season, I was able to benefit from an invitation to the Terre Blanche Ladies Open. The fact of having passed the cut helped me to enter the following tournaments. And when I win in Prague, at the end of June, which gives me a year and a half of exemption, I could tell myself that I had indeed made the right choice by going to LETAS! Besides, if I don't finish in the top 5 at the LETAS Order of Merit, which would give me a full category on the LET in 2018, I think I won't go back to the cards. I will stay a second season on this circuit of the second division.

P & P: Incredible scenario that of your first success on LETAS, on June 24th at the Foxconn Czech Ladies Open. With this fire at the clubhouse and the title that was played in a third round limited to a simple play-off between you, Agathe Sauzon and the Austrian Nina Muehl…

LA Everything turned out to my advantage, that's for sure! The fire broke out in the bag room on the morning of the third and final round. When we got there, at 7:30 am, it was panic. Black smoke, firefighters ... It took two hours to bring the fire under control. Then, the players who had left their bags in the room had to go to the practice to assess the damage. There was mostly carbon black on the material… But still, some putter faces had melted! We waited for the outcome ... At 11 o'clock, the decision was taken to play the three leaders of the day before on three play-off holes to determine which one would be the winner. It could have been hard for Agathe (Sauzon) whose bag was left in the room overnight. Nina Muehl had been lucky enough to bring hers back to the hotel. And I had good karma: whereas, the day before, I wanted to leave my bag at the clubhouse because of the shuttles that had to be taken in the morning, with the suitcases, etc., etc., I had the luck that Inès Lescudier and Marie Fourquier tell me: “No, we will take it from our car, your bag, bring it back, there is room. They saved my day! In addition, beyond the victory, this short three-hole play-off was timely because I was able to have my Prague-Lyon flight scheduled for 18 p.m. and which I would undoubtedly have missed if the third round had been completed. was carried out normally!

P & P: During the first two French stages of the LETAS circuit in 2017, two French women won. Valentine Derrey in March at the Terre Blanche Ladies Open and Isabelle Boineau in June at the Jabra Ladies Open. What do you expect from the Bossey Ladies Championship? Another French victory? From you ?

LA: This tournament in Bossey is definitely a goal for all of us. Of course, I want to do the best I can. After that, things don't depend on me… As I said, a good result in the Bossey Ladies Championship would also be important to try to finish in the top 5 of the LETAS classification at the end of September. Because the first five are awarded a full category on the LET next year.

Interview with Nathalie Vion

BOSSEY LADIES CHAMPIONSHIP - August 15 to 17

Golf & Country Club de Bossey, 5, route de Crevin, 74160 Bossey (France).
3 rounds of stroke play, cut after two rounds, prize money 45 €

To know more : www.bossey-ladies-championship.com