Some of the most successful and well-known golfers have descended on St Albans.

Georgia Hall MBE, winner of the British Open in 2018, and US-born Lexi Thompson, the youngest ever winner of the US Women’s Open, are just two professional golfers who are taking part in a new competition, the Aramco Team Series – London which takes place between July 8 to July 10 at the Centurion Club in Hertfordshire.

It was confirmed in late June that even more golfing talent would be joining Hall and Thompson in the first of five Ladies European Tour events which will be sponsored by Aramco in the 2021 season.

A trio of European professionals in the form of Kettering-born Charley Hull, 25-year-old Dutch golfer Anne van Dam and Catriona Matthews from Scotland who won the Women’s British Open in 2009 as well as Australian number one, Minjee Lee are joining the competition, and all have their eyes set on winning the debut $1 million tournament.

It’s not just the money that the golfers will be concentrating on however as this competition is going to count towards qualification of the Solheim Cup, which is taking place in the States this time, at the Inverness Club in Ohio at the end of August, and the 2021 Race to Costa del Sol.

This brand-new competition is unlike any other as it features a completely different format – amateur golfers will be playing alongside the pros.

Over the five Aramco events which are taking place in the UK, Spain, the USA and Saudi Arabia, 36 teams of four each with a captain will be playing against each other with their aim being to achieve the lowest combined score over the weekend - and there’s also a $200,000 prize for the professional player with the lowest individual score.

A unique draft system will see captains getting to choose one professional player with the third team member being randomly assigned and the fourth being an amateur, meaning that it could well be up to the amateur golfer to putt the final hole to win their professional teammates the prize money – a totally unique concept to the world of golf.

These amateurs haven’t just been randomly picked off golf courses but instead there has been a social media drive in the form of the Team Up competition in which people have been uploading videos showing off their golfing skills and then including #ATSTeamUp alongside it.

This format has been trialled before at the Saudi Ladies Team International in November 2020 and was won by the champion of 2020’s Race to Costa del Sol Emily Kristine Pedersen who is also taking part in the Aramco Team Series – London, but this is the first time the new format will be a regular feature on the LET.

New competitions like the Aramco Team Series events which are bringing in new investment and new spectators can only be a good thing for women’s golf – encouraging participation, further investment and a bigger audience.

The Aramco Team Series takes place at the Centurion Club London on July 8th to July 10th. For more information, please visit aramcoteamseries.com.

Words by Lucy Roberts for Female First. You can follow Lucy on Twitter, @Lucy_Roberts_72.