\u201c2020 has been a very difficult year globally, not just for sports, and as such we are very grateful to Dubai Sports Council and all our partners; without their support this tournament simply wouldn\u2019t have been possible. With some of the game\u2019s best players set to attend this year\u2019s tournament, we\u2019ve gone above and beyond to ensure the necessary safety precautions are in place for November. Whilst we won\u2019t be able to welcome spectators this year, we are delighted that Dubai will host the unique and day and night event which will be broadcast globally to 60 countries and 348m households.<\/p>\n
The 2020 tournament has already secured some standout players from the women\u2019s game, including defending champion Nuria Iturrioz, Solheim Cup players Charley Hull, Georgia Hall, C\u00e9line Boutier and the 2021 captain, Catriona Matthew. With the latter being a previous Women\u2019s Open winner, LET \u2018Player of the Year\u2019 and famously the victorious Team Europe captain for the 2019 Solheim Cup. Whereas Boutier has been prominent since her breakout as the number-one ranked amateur in 2014, going on to secure four victories on the Ladies European Tour and Symetra Tour in 2017 and 2018, before following up in 2020 with her first victory on the LPGA with a win at the Texas Women\u2019s Open.<\/p>\n
Australasian sensations Lydia Ko and Minjee Lee will be hoping to crash the European party. Ko, who in 2017 became the youngest ever number one ranked professional (in either the men or women\u2019s game) as well as a two-time Major winner soon after, will be hoping her first appearance in Dubai will continue her return to form in 2020 after a recent T2 finish at the Marathon Classic. Australian Minjee Lee is currently ranked No.6 in the world and with three top-four finishes in five starts since the post-COVID resumption, she\u2019ll be hoping to better her T-11 performance in Dubai back in 2014.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt will be great being back in Dubai competing again and this will be my first time playing under the floodlights with the backdrop of the nighttime Dubai skyline, which I am sure will be an incredible experience,\u201d said Minjee Lee. \u201cAs golfers, we are incredibly lucky to be able to compete and play golf all around the world, on so many beautiful golf courses in so many amazing locations. I just can\u2019t wait to get out under the lights come November and try something new. Having previously secured a top-20 finish in Dubai before, hopefully my game will be able to adapt to the conditions and my performance will give me a chance to compete.\u201d<\/p>\n
Looking to take advantage of the unique conditions will be 2018 Women\u2019s Open winner champion, Georgia Hall, who arrives in Dubai fresh from three victories in the pandemic-affected season of 2020, with success on the Rose Ladies Series in the U.K. and a playoff triumph in the US at the LPGA Cambia Portland Classic.<\/p>\n
Georgia Hall added: \u201cThe prospect of being back out in Dubai where I first played in 2014 as a teenager is an exciting one. I\u2019m looking forward to finishing off the season in style and playing under the floodlights for the first time will be something new for my game to have to adapt to, it\u2019s incredibly exciting for the players and we are very grateful that we have the opportunity to safely compete together once again.\u201d<\/p>\n
Hall will be looking to claim her first title in the Middle East but will face tough competition in Charley Hull, who she finished runner-up to in the overall standings of the recent Rose Ladies Series. Hull, who is no stranger to success in the UAE, won the most recent edition of the Fatima Bint Mubarak Ladies Open at Saadiyat Beach Golf Club in Abu Dhabi, in 2019. Her recent run of form in 2020 will make her one of the favourites to lift the iconic Dallah Trophy when the world-class field assembles in November.<\/p>\n
With a line-up of such prodigious talent at this year\u2019s OMEGA Dubai Moonlight Classic,Muni He, certainly won\u2019t struggle to standout. The 21-year-old Chinese professional whose rise to prominence has seen her claim her first tournament victory on the Symetra Tour in July 2018 at the inaugural Prasco Charity Championship in Maineville, Ohio.A follow-up win at last November\u2019s LPGA Q-Series was enough to secure her 2020 LPGA Tour membership and Dubai will be a prime opportunity for her to prove her burgeoning potential.<\/p>\n
Formerly known as the OMEGADubai Ladies Masters, the inaugural tournament was played in 2006, with a strong rollcall of previous winners, including two-time winner, Annika Sorenstam, and four-time champion, Shanshan Feng. Sorenstam won the first two events back to back in 2006 and 2007, while Chinese former world no.1, Feng, dominated from 2014-2016, winning the tournament three times in-a-row.<\/p>\n
The newly named and scheduled tournament has been switched from May to November after its first staging in spring 2019, when it achieved global recognition as the world\u2019s first professional day-night tour event.<\/p>\n
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