The LPGA Tour has surely issued a slap in the face with a wet golf glove to the Robe di Kappa Ladies European Tour with the announcement of the richest tournament in its history.
HSBC financial services is to sponsor the only individual matchplay championship in women’s golf with a winner’s cheque of $500,000. But it provides for no automatic exemption for a representative from the LET order of merit.
The championship will be the first official matchplay tournament to be played in the US in half a century, with eligibility for the 64-woman field based on the leading 60 professionals on the official LPGA money list (at 20 June 2005), the US Women’s Open champion and the leader of the Japanese LPGA money list (at 13 June 2005).
Two special invitations will be offered by the sponsors for the tournament to take place at Hamilton Farm Golf Club in Gladstone, New Jersey, between June 30 and July 3 though these are likely to be reserved for prominent players just outside the LPGA moneylist.
Despite Europe currently holding the Solheim Cup – played in matchplay format – providing many of the world’s best players and staging the Evian Masters in France, the second richest on the LPGA calendar, no exemption is provided for the Tour which nurtured so many of the world’s leading women golfers.
The LET is keeping a discreet silence but surely they must be irritated by this snub, especially with their rivals on the Japanese Tour invited to send a representative.
Players will compete in 18 holes of head-to-head matchplay culminating in a final on Sunday, 3 July, US Independence Day weekend.
Ironically, the tournament compliments the £2.4million men’s HSBC World Matchplay, due to be played in England from September 15-18.
Said Annika Sorenstam, leader of the ADT Official LPGA Money List for the last four years: "I’ve heard what a great event the men’s HSBC World Match Play is in England, so I’m really looking forward to ours. I really love match play - it should be a lot of fun."
Added Britain's legendary Laura Davies: "I love the cut and thrust of matchplay… I just hope I qualify!"
She'll certainly have to, because to be the current holder of the current women's world professional matchplay title, means nothing, it seems.
