2026 Ladies European Tour Preview

2026 Ladies European Tour Preview

2026 on the LET should be a cracking season for followers of Ozzie golf with the addition of two more Ozzie women to the playing ranks following Q School last December. Justice Bosio and Steph Bunque both survived Q school with Bosio finishing T9 and Bunque T30. Bosio and Bunque will join Kelsey Bennett, Kirsten Rudgeley and Madison Hinson-Tolchard playing the LET this year.

It has been slim pickings for Ozzies on this tour. In 2013 Rebecca Artis won the Helsingborg Open. In 2020 Steph Kyriakou won the co-sanctioned Australian Ladies Classic and of course in 2025 Grace Kim won the Amundi Evian Championship. In 2024 Kirsten Rudgeley had a very good season with seven top tens including a second place. She followed that up in 2025 with two second places. Kelsey Bennett also had two 3rd places in 2025.

With four co-sanctioned events in Australia in 2026 how good would it be if one of our 5 LET members had a win or maybe even better, another of the Ozzies gets the win, which would then get the winner onto the LET for a couple of years. Let’s have a look at the Ozzies on tour.

Kelsey Bennett

After a mixed season in 2024 where Bennett juggled secondary tour LETAS starts with main tour LET starts the prodigal daughter of Mollymook had a great season in 2025. The start in Oz was far from perfect. I recall watching Kelsey at the NSW Open where she was struggling with her short game and missed the cut. But then came the resurgence in South Africa and Korea where she finished with 8th, 3rd, and 8th. Ozzie fans were really hanging on in the final round of the SA Women’s Open where three birdies on the back nine on Sunday saw her within one of the lead.

Bennett was the highest Ozzie finisher on the OOM in 2025 at 20th, just nudging out Kirsten Rudgeley at 21st. I would think that in 2026 Bennett is aiming or a breakthrough win and top ten on the OOM. Top ten get exemption to Final Stage of LPGA Q Series. Apart from winning one of the co-sanctioned events this is the best pathway to the LPGA.

Kirsten Rudgeley

Rudgeley finished 21st on the OOM which was a bit of a drop off compared to her previous season where she finished 12th. Outside her 7 individual top tens her results were probably disappointing. She bookended her season with a T2 at the NSW Open and finished the season strongly with second place in the season finale. Rudgeley has continued that form back in Australia at the Blitz W.A. event and a T3 at the Webex Perth event. Of the Ozzies on the LET Rudgeley is most likely to crack the W this season. She has been close a few times and knows the pressure of being at the pointy end of tournaments.

Madison Hinson-Tolchard (MHT)

What a great 2025 season for MHT. Madison finished 25th at Q School in 2024 and was therefore in Category 16 and potentially trickier to get starts and valuable points before the reshuffle. However despite a poor start to the year with three missed cuts things improved and she only missed one more cut for the season. Throw in eight top 20’s and that turns into a fantastic season finishing at 31 in the OOM and no worries about starts this year. Expect MHT to improve on last year with increased confidence and a year under her belt on tour.

Justice Bosio

Bosio played a full season on LETAS last season and was unlucky not to gain automatic promotion to the LET through the OOM. Ultimately, she finished 9th and had to go through Q School where she comfortably finished in the top 20 (T9) to gain her card for this season.

Bosio lost two playoffs early in the year and then continued that good form through the season. With one event left she was sitting one spot outside the top 7 on the OOM and automatic qualification to the LET. A late dash to Spain wasn’t successful but her quality shone through at the Q School.

It will be very interesting to see how she performs on the main tour this season particularly in the early season Australian events. Bosio still holds the course record at Magenta Shores from the 1st round of the 2024 NSW Women’s Open. The Australian Women’s Classic will be played at that course on 5-8 March. It will be no surprise is Bosio can get a win this season and definitely should do well enough to consolidate her position on the tour.

Steph Bunque

Perhaps the best result of the season for Ozzie women in Europe this year was Steph Bunque’s fantastic run at Q School. Having played a limited number of tournaments on LETAS the Melbournian had to get through Pre-Qualifying and Final Stage to earn status on the main LET for this season. In Pre-Qualifying Bunque birdied two of the last three holes to get through and then had a solid week at final stage to finish T30 and gain Category 16 status. This should get Bunque enough starts early season to hopefully make cuts and accrue points before the all-important mid-season shuffle. Interestingly it looks like she is having to use her WPGA status to get starts in the Ozzie events showing how competitive it is to get into the field in the LET. Bunque will be hoping for a solidifying year and making top seventy to secure full playing rights next season.

2026 Season

This year the LET will have 30 tournaments across 21 countries. Total prize pool this season is €39 million. Fifteen million of that comes from the five Golf Saudi events. This season also sees the 20th Solheim Cup in the Netherlands.

The season kicks off with a PIF event in Saudi Arabia. Interestingly, a number of the players who earned their LPGA card through Q Series - Mimi Rhodes, Helen Briem, Nastasia Nadoud, Perrine Delacour, Chiara Tambourlini, Lauren Walsh, and Dongeun Lee, are playing in this European event before the US season starts.

Then comes the Ozzie swing with four events down under closely followed by three tournaments on the African continent, including a new tournament in Mauritius. This will be followed by six tournaments in Europe before the last two Majors of the year, the Amundi Evian Championship and the AIG Women’s Open. Squeezed between these two is the ISPS Handa Women’s Scottish open.

Following the Women’s open there are six more tournaments in Europe, interrupted by the Solheim Cup. The LET then heads to Asia for four tournaments before returning to Spain for the usual season Finale.

Once again, the tour will be financially dominated by the five PIF/Aramco events. The first is in Saudi Arabia followed by USA, London South Korea, and China. These are the equivalent of signature events on the PGA Tour. They are limited entry, big prize money and if players can get into these, they provide a huge advantage in the points race for OOM status.

There are four tournaments with LPGA co-sanctioning: The Aramco Championship, The Evian, The Women’s Open, and the Scottish Open. Again, if you can get into these events and win one, this sees you immediately exempt on the LPGA. For example Lotte Woad who won the Scottish Open in 2025 and is now playing LPGA.

Whilst the women’s tour does not have the same automatic promotion to their USA counterpart as the men, there is a natural drift of the top players to the LPGA. Six of the top twelve LET OOM finishers from 2025 have attained LPGA status via Q Series. Add in Lotte Woad and this creates more opportunities for players on the LET this year.

Of course we will celebrate a win by any of our Ozzie women but the best chances are with Kirsten Rudgeley, Kelsey Bennett and as a surprise Justice Bosio. If you want to see some of the world’s best women golfers, get to a LET tournament and you will not be disappointed.

You can read about the results of every LET tournament and all the news from the tour at Ozziegolf.com