Aspeboda Ladies Open Tournament in Sweden
First played: 1986
Last played: 1997
When the tournament debuted in 1986, it was one of the featured events in the very first season of the Swedish Golf Tour. And in that year only, it was co-sanctioned by the Ladies European Tour (LET). Also in that year only, the tournament was known as the Borlange Ladies Open, after both its location (Falun-Borlange, Sweden) and its golf course (Falun-Borlange GK Aspeboda).
Winners of the Aspeboda Ladies Open
1986 — Karen Lunn, 2121987 — Marie Wennersten, 221
1988 — Marie Wennersten, 216
1989 — Marie Wennersten, 220
1990 — a-Margareta Buro, 216
1991 — a-Maria Hjorth, 218
1992 — Carin Koch, 222
1993 — a-Maria Hjorth, 225
1994 — Asa Gottmo, 222
1995 — a-Mia Lojdahl, 219 (def. Pernilla Sterner in playoff)
1996 — Maria Hjorth, 214
1997 — Katharina Larsson, 217
The first champion, Karen Lunn of Australia, remained the only non-Swedish golfer to win the Aspeboda Ladies Open tournament. It was also the first of Lunn's eventual 10 career wins on the LET. Her winning score of 212 was never beaten.
The most prominent winners were Carin Koch and Maria Hjorth, both LPGA Tour winners and Solheim Cup players (and in Koch's case, a future Solheim Cup captain). Koch's win in 1992 was her first significant professional victory on any tour.
Hjorth was a 3-time winner, the first two times (1991 and 1993) while still an amateur. After turning pro, she tied the tournament record for wins with her third in 1996. Hjorth's 1991 victory was by seven strokes, the tournament record for margin of victory.
The other 3-time champ in the Aspeboda Ladies Open was Mari Wennersten, who, after finishing fourth in the inaugural tournament in 1986, won the next three (1987-89). Wennersten went on to play on the LPGA Tour without winning, but did have one victory on the LET.
