Aramco Team Series 2022: What is it? How does it work? And what happened last year?
The Aramco Team Series changed the landscape of women’s golf when it debuted on the Ladies European Tour last year, and the string of big-money tournaments is returning in 2022, complete with a date in London in June and a new fifth event which tees off next month. Here is all you need to know about it.
What is the Aramco Team Series?
It is a collection of tournaments with a unique team format and a prize fund of $1m each, making them among the most lucrative on the Ladies European Tour.
The women’s golf series debuted on the tour last year with four events – in London, Sotogrande, New York and Jeddah – and is due to expand this year.
It is believed to be the first team event series on any professional golf tour, with prizes awarded for both team and individual scores after three days of play.
How are the teams put together?
Each Aramco Team Series team comprises four players: a captain, two more professionals and – uniquely – an amateur.
The pros have the chance to choose their captain as part of a pre-tournament draft, like those seen in US sports.
The amateur player, who may be male or female and is usually connected to an event partner, is allocated at random.
How does the scoring work?
Play takes place over three days, starting on a Thursday and concluding on the Saturday.
The first two days’ play are fourballs, with each team’s two best scores at each hole determining the winner of the team competition, which is decided on the Friday.
All pros complete all holes, however, and their individual scores over the first two days count towards the individual title, which is settled with a final round on Saturday.
Where is the Aramco Team Series happening?
London is staging an event again this year, at Centurion Club on 16-18 June, but is not the first stop on the women’s golf series in 2022.
Instead, it will tee off in Bangkok on 10-12 May and also take in dates in Sotogrande, Spain, in August, New York in October and Jeddah in November.
Last year stars including Georgia Hall, Charley Hull, Anna Nordqvist, Lexi Thompson and Atthaya Thitikul played and a similarly high-profile line-up is expected in 2022.
What happened last year?
Emily Kristine Pedersen’s team won the series-ending event to complete a remarkable Jeddah hat-trick for the Dane.
In 2020 Pedersen also captained the winning team at the Saudi Ladies Team International, an event which proved the precursor to the series, and the individual Saudi Ladies International a week earlier.
Her team featured Hannah Burke, while fellow English pro Hayley Davis was part of the winning team in Sotogrande and a runner-up in the US, where a team skippered by American Jessica Korda, elder sister of former world No1 Nelly, won. English amateur Andrew Kelsey was part of Olivia Cowan’s winning team in London.