Karrie Webb to return to Melbourne in pursuit of fifth Australian Open - Courier Mail

Karrie Webb won the first of her four Australian Opens at Yarra Yarra in 2000. Picture: Glenn Hampson Source: Gold Coast Bulletin

KARRIE Webb is coming back to Melbourne, chasing a fifth Australian Open.

For just the second time in the event's history -- and the first since it became co-sanctioned with the LPGA Tour -- Victoria Golf Club will host the event from February 13-16 next year.

The ALPG's flagship event, back in Melbourne after a year in Canberra, is again expected to draw a hot field, with world No.10 and crowd favourite Jiyai Shin already confirmed and most of the world's top 20 expected to follow suit.

A huge hit at Royal Melbourne in 2012, the Sandbelt was a major talking point among top LPGA players who will again start their season down under before the first Asian swing of 2014.

Webb, back to world No.6 after winning her 39th LPGA event in June, won the first of her four Opens at Yarra Yarra in 2000 and is the only Australian to have won the title since Jane Crafter in 1997.

But the Queenslander knows the next local winner will have a big mountain to climb.

“The championship has gone from strength to strength since it joined the LPGA Tour and the players certainly look forward to starting the year in Australia on our best courses," Webb said.

Karrie Webb wants to represent Australia at the 2016 Olympics in Rio de Janeiro.

Golf Australia chief executive Stephen Pitt said the Open had locked in its status as a "major women’s sporting event in the Asia-Pacific region".

"The championship consistently brings the highest number of top-20 ranked golfers in the world to Australia each year through our successful partnerships with the LPGA Tour, Ladies European Tour and ALPG Tour,” he said.

“We’ll (soon) be in a position to confirm more of the world’s top 10 players coming to Melbourne in the months ahead for what will be a terrific week of summer golf in Melbourne.”

The announcement caps a big three months for Victorian golf with Royal Melbourne to host the men's Australian Masters the week before the World Cup at the same venue in mid-November.

The concurrent men's and women's Victorian Open is again on at Thirteenth Beach on the Bellarine Peninsula the week after the women's national Open in a move sure to boost the strength of that field.