KENT golfer Karen Stupples' joy at finishing second in the Australian Ladies' Masters tournament last weekend turned to anger after she was refused entry to the Australian Women's Open, starting in Sydney today.

The 30-year-old Deal player got her 2004 competitive season off to a flying start with a splendid second-place finish behind the winner, world number one Annika Sorenstam from Sweden, in the Australian Masters at Surfers Paradise on Queensland's Gold Coast.

But when she arrived in Sydney on Tuesday to prepare for the Australian Open, Stupples was told by the organisers that she wasn't in the draw because they had not received an entry form from her.

Stupples, who is now based in Florida and competes for most of the year on the US Women's tour, was given sponsors' invitations to the Queensland and Sydney tournaments which are part of the European Women's Tour.

She was under the impression that being given a sponsors' invite meant she didn't have to submit an entry form for either tournament, and she encountered no problems when she turned up to play in Queensland.

But it was a different story in Sydney, where Stupples was told on her arrival that she wouldn't be allowed to compete.

With Sorenstam not playing in the tournament, Stupples would have started as one of the favourites and her father Alan, who lives in James Hall Gardens, Deal, said: "She livid when I spoke to her on the phone. She can't understand why they let her play in Queensland but not in Sydney.

"It wasn't a case of her forgetting to send in her entry forms. She just didn't think she had to send any in after receiving sponsors' invites to both tournaments.

"You would have thought the (Sydney) organisers would have made her a special case, especially after how she played at the weekend."

The Royal Cinque Ports GC member is now heading back to the States, several days earlier than she had planned, to prepare for the opening event of the US Women's Tour in Arizona next Thursday.