Taiwan to host LPGA tour in 2011
LPGA announced that it will host a tour in Taiwan for the first time. This inaugural LPA event is to be called the LPGA Taiwan Championship. It is scheduled to take place at the elegant Sunrise Gold and country Club in Taoyuan from October 27-30 next year.
This tour will be communally endorsed by the Golf Association of Republic of China. This tournament is scheduled to be a four round event and it’s not going to have a cut. The top 80 members of the LPGA, along with 10 host country exemptions will play on
the field.
“We’re eager to showcase the greatest women’s athletes in the world to our growing global fan base, and certainly the LPGA Taiwan tournament provides an ideal opportunity to do just that”, said LPGA Tour Commissioner Mike Whan. “We express our gratitude
to our friends at GAROC, and anticipate a collaborative relationship that enables us to fulfil the LPGA vision in Taiwan to inspire, empower, educate and entertain”.
With the purse of the tour set to be $2 Million dollars, it looks like the island nation will surely attract a big crowd. The besieged LPGA tour looked to the east for some place and has finally found home. This full field event will get a lot of international
attention and is a fantastic opportunity for the professional women golfers to earn some money. This news has come in good time for the LPGA women due to the money situation drying up for women golfers in America.
After the retirement of Mexican Lorena Ochoa, the gossip in women’s golf is that who out of all the international golfers can struggle to replace her. One of the top world rankers include, Al Miyazato from Japan place who is number one and American, Cristie
Ker who is in second place. Also, in race for number one is the Korean, Jiya Shin who did actually have the position the week after Ochoa’s retirement. Last but not the least, all eyes will also be on Yani Tseng, who is a fast-rising star.
The 21-year old, who will be representing her home country, has already won two of three major titles this year. Tseng beat Michelle Wie, who is another talented lady, in Arkansas on Sunday. Tseng has been triumphant in the Ricoh’s Women British Open with
a tense one shot victory and Kraft Nabisco Championship. Yani is the youngest woman to win three major trophies. She has made sure to make her mark in the golfing world and also make the sponsors attentive towards Taiwan.
The likely candidate for the LPGA Rolex Player of the Year Award, Yani is the best Chinese-speaking golfer in the world. She is talented, gifted and also has a lot of enthusiasm to win many more tournaments. With the tour now scheduled to be in Taiwan, it
does seem like a possibility that Tseng could bring her victories home just like Lorena did in Mexico.
When Ochoa was popular in women’s golf, she followed the amazing Annika Sorenstam, who was from Sweden. The number of LPGA tour events in Mexico incremented from one to three. With so many brilliant golfers from Asia, there is a high chance that we will
be seeing more championships and tournaments in the East.
This event will be in tandem with other tournaments taking place in Japan, Singapore, Thailand and Korea. With so many games taking place all over Asia, it is really no surprise that Taiwan gets a little golf action as well. This is significant for the country
because it is the first time it has hosted professional women’s golf.
The European tour is now more of a World tour with tournaments taking place in the Middle East, Australia, Asia and South Africa. The number of championships in Europe as compared to all around the world is almost the same. With the number of sponsors
of US based LPGA decreasing, it does look like women’s golf will be played worldwide. It doesn’t matter whether they are in London or China, the LPGA ladies know their game and they know it very well.