By IANS
New Delhi : The Thailand Ladies Open and DLF Women’s Indian Open will kick-start the Ladies Asian Golf Tour (LAGT) 2008 season. The season itself will be played over two halves – first and last quarter – of 2008.
The first of its events starts with the Thailand Ladies Open presented by Tourism Authority of Thailand at The Vintage Club, Bangkok, from Feb 20-22. The Tour then moves to Gurgaon, near New Delhi for the DLF Women’s Indian Open from March 26-28. Both events offer a prize purse of $120,000.
Having a heart for the less fortunate, the proceeds from the Pro-Am for the Thailand Ladies Open will be channelled to the Kidney Foundation in memory of late Princess Galyani Vadhana, the Thai King’s elder sister who passed away Jan 3, 2008. The tournament is also expected to have a full field of 132 players in Thailand.
Interestingly, the 6,411-yard Arnold Palmer-designed DLF Golf & Country club which will host the Women’s Indian Open will also play host to the Johnnie Walker Classic two weeks before the women’s event.
India’s biggest challenger on LAGT has been Simi Mehra and she will have Irina Brar, who is also making the rapid strides. The duo is also scheduled to represent India at the World Cup in South Africa.
As usual the Tour, which moves into its third year, will not lack for drama with rising Asian women golfers like South Korea’s Shin Ji-yai, Chinese Taipei’s Tseng Ya-ni, Japan’s Rui Yokomine and Rie Shiraki and China’s Zhang Na, a four-time winner in the JLPGA Tour last season all set to make their mark in their quest for excellence.
Aylwin Tai, Chief Executive LAGT, said the move to have the Tour in two halves was to facilitate the request from sponsors on the dates and timing of the events.
“We can only look at the first and last quarter of 2008 because the other Tours like the USLPGA, Japan LPGA, Ladies European Tour and Korean LPGA will have their events run from March onwards. We do not want to clash with other events as we aim to attract top players from all the Tours worldwide to participate in the LAGT events and also to accommodate our sponsors’ request on the dates to host the events,” he said.