Defending champion Marianne Skarpnord (Norway), Christine Wolf (Austria) and Nuria Iturrioz (Spain) will head a powerful international line-up in the 36-hole ALPG event at Ballarat Golf Club on Saturday and Sunday.

Skarpnord built on her win in Ballarat to finish second to Germany's Esther Henseleit on the order of merit, with Wolf and Iturrioz next.

The Norwegian took out the Australian Classic to go with nine top 10 finishes.

Wolf won the Indian Open in October as well as having four top 10s, while Iturrioz took out two of the six LET tournaments she contested - the Lalla Meryem Cup in Morocco and Dubai Moonlight Classic.

She also performed well in Australia at the start of the year with equal second in the Australian Classic.

Wolf played in Ballarat last year, but this will be Iturrioz's first visit to the city.

ALPG operations manager Emily McLennan said the Ballarat event continued to grow in stature.

"It's a really impressive field," she said.

As well as the LET leading lights, the pro-am will also feature Dottie Ardina (Philippines), Celine Herbin (France), Kim Kaufman (United States) and Xi Yu Lin (China), who all have LPGA status.

Lin won the the Ballarat Pro-Am in 2018 and finished equal eighth last year.

The pro-am will have a maximum of 84 professionals, with entries already close to the cut-off.

Saturday's opening round will have professionals playing alongside amateurs, who will take part in a teams event.

On professionals will play on Sunday.

Saturday shotgun start: 7.30am and 12.30pm. Sunday: 7.30am tee off.

Ballarat is the seventh event of the ALPG season and fifth of the year and is the final lead-up to the Victorian Open on February 6-9.

ALPG order of merit top 10: Weiwwei Zhang (China), Hanee Song (New Zealand), Breanna Gill (Australia), Elmay Viking (Cook Islands), Prima Thammaraks (Thailand), Whitney Hiller (Australia), Kristalle Blum (Australia), Grace St Just (Australia), Paige Stubbs (Australia), Onkonak Soisuwan (Thailand).

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