IRISH WOMEN'S OPEN:AN INVASION of sorts has taken place for the AIB Ladies Irish Open at Portmarnock Links, even if two of the infiltrators - Norway's Suzann Pettersen, the world number three, and Maria Hjorth, of Sweden - are familiar faces in that they cut their teeth as touring professionals on this side of the Atlantic before being lured to the greater financial rewards on the LPGA Tour.
Still, along with the American Morgan Pressel, the two Scandinavians are part of a them-and-us challenge for the European Tour's leading lights.
And, as the in-form Rebecca Hudson put it at Portmarnock Links yesterday, "I think it's great to have Suzie and Mimi and Morgan here. It's nice to play against the American-based girls who apparently are so much better than us if you look at the world rankings . . . those three should walk it!"
She added: "I hope this week we show that the LET (Ladies European Tour) is as good as the LPGA and that they don't come one-two-three. I hope we do go out and show that the world rankings are slightly wrong . . . the LPGA need to recognise our tour a little bit.
"I hope that we show how good we are and how good as a tour we can be."
There is much validity to Hudson's point. The English player has won the last two tournaments on the LET - the Tenerife Open and last week's English Open - but, remarkably, has seen her world ranking fall in that period: she has gone from 180th in the world to 181st. Go figure it out, because that just doesn't make any sense.
So perhaps it is understandable that Hudson and other LET players see this week's €450,000 tournament - with €67,500 to the winner - as an opportunity to make a point to those who compile the world rankings.
Pettersen, who previously played in the Irish Open at Killarney in 2002 when she finished runner-up to Iben Tinning, is the highest-ranked player in the field here (at number three), with Hjorth (11th) and Pressel (15th) making this one of the strongest tournaments in Europe.
That 19 of the top-20 players on the LET money list are here further embellishes that assessment.
For her part, Pettersen is looking forward to the tournament, the only big professional event to be played on a genuine links course this year.
"In America, it's all about flying the ball and landing it soft," she said. "This is different golf. This is how golf was started, and it's nice to be more creative.
"Of course, the wind and the weather will be a factor and I'm expecting tough conditions. I think being creative will be vital and also making putts."
Hudson, who is enjoying her richest vein of form since turning professional in 2002 after an honour-laden amateur career, has a straightforward philosophy.
"I like to go out, play golf and have good fun. I try not to fight the weather or fight myself (on the course), to play it one shot at a time," she said.
Not only is Hudson bidding to extend her winning sequence into a third straight win - a feat last achieved on tour by Marie-Laure de Lorenzi in 1988 - but she is also attempting to continue something of a family trend: she won last week's English Open on her father's birthday; and her mother celebrates her birthday this Sunday.
Hudson will have her hands full to make it a hat-trick of wins. Apart from the Solheim Cup players Pettersen, Hjorth and Pressel, the field also features the LET money leader Gwladys Nocera of France, while Melissa Reid, a runner-up in England last weekend, and Lisa Hall - both just 20 years of age - are considered future forces in the world game.
There are seven Irish players in the field: Martin Gillen, Rebecca Coakley, Claire Coughlan-Ryan, Marian Riordan, Hazel Kavanagh, Suzanne O'Brien and the amateur Aedin Murphy.
Dubliner Gillen, in just her second year on tour, finished tied-10th in the English Open and could be poised for a big week here on a links she knows extremely well.
