6 Canadians to tee it up on new-look LPGA Tour in '11

6 Canadians to tee it up on new-look LPGA Tour in '11

he six Canadians on the 2011 LPGA Tour are about to embark on a fascinating season.

Lori Kane, Alena Sharp, Lisa Meldrum, Samantha Richdale, Adrienne White and newcomer Stephanie Sherlock and the rest of the golfing world learned yesterday, during the unveiling of the 2011 LPGA Tour schedule, that the tour has added ground-breaking ideas for tournaments.

New events in the U.S., Taiwan and China have been added to the tournament calendar along with a renewed commitment to the tour's existing and long-term corporate partners. Evidence of that commitment will happen through a unique qualifying format for the tour's season finale. The format will be a season-long celebration of tournament title sponsors called the Countdown to Titleholders.

“Our 2011 schedule reflects the key strategic initiatives of the LPGA: Global – new events in the U.S. and abroad; Partnership – consistently increasing the value to our current business partners; and responsibility – embracing the history of the LPGA and making a commitment to the future of the women’s game,” said LPGA Commissioner Michael Whan while he appeared on Golf Channel.

All three of these elements will be showcased at the inaugural RR Donnelley LPGA Founders Cup, a tournament designed to honor the LPGA’s pioneers, showcase the world’s greatest female athletes of the present and, most importantly, build a strong and robust future for women in the game of golf.

Players participating in the RR Donnelley LPGA Founders Cup, a new 54-hole, stroke-play event to be televised on the Golf Channel, will forgo a tournament purse in favor of financially supporting the LPGA Foundation. The organization runs the LPGA-USGA Girls Golf program. The tournament, with a field of 132 players, will help raise funds to grow the game at a grass-roots level much like Marilynn Smith, Shirley Spork, Louise Suggs, Marlene Bauer Hagge, Bettye Danoff and the eight other LPGA Founders first set out to accomplish more than 60 years ago.

The event is slated for March 18-20 at Wildfire Golf Club at JW Marriott Phoenix Desert Ridge Resort and Spa in Arizona. The tournament will be officially sanctioned, thus providing official LPGA and World Golf Halls of Fame and Rolex Rankings points, as well as official statistics and impact to the LPGA Official Money List purposes.

The LPGA Tour begins Feb. 17-20 with the $1,500,000 Honda LPGA Thailand in Chonburi, Thailand, at the Siam Country Club, Pattaya Old Course.

From Aug. 25-28 Michelle Wie will defend her title during the $2,250,000 CN Canadian Women’s Open in Mirabel, Que., at the Canada Hillsdale Golf and Country Club.

The $1,500,000 Titleholders event happens Nov. 17-20 in Orlando, Fla., at Cypress Golf Club.