Ten Canadians to Compete at LPGA Tour Qualifying School
Tue, 03 Mar 2009 01:45:22
Many talented players with the ambition to be successful players on the LPGA Tour highlight the field, including the 56 players who have never earned any LPGA Tour status. The remaining 80 players have once been a member of the LPGA Tour and are either attempting to get their status back or trying to improve their status from the 2002 season. This includes 15 of the 26 LPGA rookies from 2002.
Six of those players yet to join the LPGA Tour were members of the 2002 European Solheim Cup Team. Raquel Carriedo, Elisabeth Esterl (traveling alternate), Karine Icher, Paula Marti, Suzann Pettersen and Iben Tinning competed in The Solheim Cup, Sept. 20-22, at Interlachen Country Club in Edina, Minn. These young players, Pettersen the youngest at 21, come to the United States after being top players on the Evian Ladies European Tour (LET) and hope to test their games against the best women professional golfers in the world as a member of the LPGA Tour.
The player roster also includes a number of recognizable names that had very successful collegiate careers:
* Candy Hannemann of Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, won the 2001 NCAA Championship while at Duke University. In eight Futures Tour events in 2002, she finished 21st on the money list. She was a 2001 First-Team NCAA All-American, member of the 1998 and 2002 NCAA Championship teams, was 2001 ACC Player of the Year, Honda Award Winner and NCAA Player of the Year.
* Stacy Prammansudh of Enid, Okla., was a three-year Academic All-American at the University of Tulsa, where she won three collegiate titles. She tied for 22nd place in the 2002 U.S. Women's Open.
* Carrie Summerhays of Farmington, Utah, won six collegiate tournaments while at Brigham Young University. The daughter of Senior PGA Tour player Bruce Summerhays, she was the BYU Player of the Year in 2000 and 2001.
The participants, including 61 international players, qualified for the LPGA Final Qualifying Tournament via three avenues: the top 30 finishers from each of the two LPGA sectional qualifiers; 69 current LPGA Tour members attempting to improve their status; and the seven players who finished fourth through 10th on the 2002 Futures Tour money list.
More than 300 golfers competed in the two LPGA sectional qualifying tournaments earlier this season to qualify for the 60 spots in the LPGA Final Qualifying Tournament. Isabelle Beisiegel of Quebec, posted a 285 (-3) four-day total to win by one shot over Young Kim of Seoul, Korea, at Plantation Golf Club's Bobcat Course in Venice, Fla., to win the first sectional qualifying tournament. Beisiegel attended the University of Oklahoma and graduated in 2000. She is the winner of the 2002 Colorado Women's Open, and her best finish in the five 2002 Futures Tour events in which she played was a tie for third at the Greater Kansas City Futures.
Marti, a European Solheim Cup Team member from Barcelona, Spain, won the Indio, Calif., LPGA sectional tournament with a 281 (-7) four-day total for a wire-to-wire victory and a three-shot margin over Joellyn Erdmann, who finished at 284 (-4). Marti finished first on the 2002 LET money list. She won two LET events in 2001 and had a season-best, second-place finish at the Weetabix Women's British Open.
At the conclusion of 72 holes in this week's LPGA Final Qualifying Tournament, the top 23 players will earn exempt status for the 2003 LPGA Tour season and the next 35 players and ties will receive conditional/non-exempt status cards for the 2003 Tour season. A sudden-death playoff will be held, if necessary, to determine the 23rd and final exempt spot.
Ten Canadian's will be competing this week in the LPGA Q-School.
Canadians competing are A.J. Eathorne, Nancy Harvey, Tina Tombs, Angela Buzminski, Isabelle Beisiegel, Lanie Cahill, Liz Early, Heather Lee, Salimeh Mussani and Heather Wilbur.
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