Record Fields to Tee Off in Club Car Series
The ALPG Tour tees of next week with record numbers of local and international players set to challenge the first three events in the 2013 Club Car Series.
The inaugural The Vintage Pro-Am will launch the 2013 season on 14-15 January where a field of 64 professionals will compete for $30,000 prizemoney. The star-studded field includes leading Australians Stacey Keating, Sarah Kemp, Sarah-Jane Smith, Julia Boland and Kristie Smith. The event will be the first home tour professional event for rookies Whitney Hillier and Breanna Elliott who recently turned professional after representing Australia at the 2012 World Cup.
Adding international star flavor to the Hunter Valley event is English legend Laura Davies, the 87-time tournament winner who has committed to play every event on the 2013 schedule. Davies will join a host of new ALPG International Members including American Esther Choe who topped the money list on the 2012 Symetra Tour (development tour for the LPGA)
Players then move to the Macarthur region, south west of Sydney, for another first time event on the ALPG Tour schedule when the Ingham Antill Park Country Golf Club Pro-Am will be played on Thursday 17 January. Joining an already strong contingent of 72 players will be Swede Caroline Hedwall, the Ladies European Tour’s 2011 Player of the Year and Rookie of the Year. Hedwall made headlines in 2011 when she birdied the final hole of the Women’s New South Wales Open to snatch victory from the then 13-year-old Kiwi amateur star, Lydia Ko. Hedwall went on to add four European Tour titles in 2011. In 2012 she returned from two months out through injury to successfully defend her Austrian Open title.
Other players who join the Tour at Antill Park and are expected to feature on leader boards include Norway’s Marianne Skarpnord, Americans Lacey Agnew and Beth Allen, and Australian star, Karen Lunn.
The Mount Broughton Classic will complete a busy week of play when the 36 hole event is played in the southern highlands on the weekend of 19-20 January. Another $30,000 is up for grabs with a 72 strong field competing for their share of the money along with valuable Club Car Series points.
The 2013 Club Car Series offers a fifteen thousand-bonus pool to the leading six players at the end of the series, which concludes at the Women’s Victorian Open to be played at 13th Beach Golf Links from 21-24 February.
ALPG Chief Executive Officer Warren Sevil said the Tour was delighted with the strength and numbers of entries. “We introduced an International Membership Category for 2013 and the response has been fantastic. The field numbers and quality of players have been boosted by around twenty international players and we have more local members attracted to a new look of a condensed schedule which offers around $90,000 prizemoney in three events within the space of seven days. We’re excited to have added The Vintage and Antill Park to our schedule and we look forward to showcasing world-class women’s golf in the coming weeks.