Top LPGA stars to swing by

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Natalie Gulbis would surely attract a throng of fans if she participates in event at St. Charles. (ASSOCIATED PRESS ARCHIVES)

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Paula (The Pink Panther) Creamer could be one of the LPGA luminaries compet­ing in the Canadian Women’s Open tournament at St. Charles Country Club next summer. (THE ASSOCIATED PRESS)

The Royal Canadian Golf Association will break with one tradition to confirm another by announcing today that the CN Canadian Women's Open is coming to Winnipeg next summer.

The 2010 LPGA Tour event will be played at historic St. Charles Country Club, likely in August.

This year's US$2.75 million championship will be played near Calgary. Next year's tournament was scheduled to be played in the eastern half of the country, in keeping with the regular east-west alternation, but the centre of Canada will just have to do.

"I'm just thrilled for them; this is very cool," said Gail Graham, Manitoba Golf Hall of Fame member, former president of the LPGA Tour and now president of the LPGA Tournament Owners Association.

Graham, a two-time LPGA winner and a former St. Charles member, said Winnipeggers are going to be dazzled by the stars who will come out next summer.

"CN and the RCGA have done such a great job making this event big," Graham said. "It does not have the designation of major, but it has the feel of a major."

This year, our Open's purse is the third-richest on the LPGA Tour despite not being one of the four majors. Canada's tournament lost its "major" designation when duMaurier ended its sponsorship in 2000.

"If you'd seen what duMaurier had done, you'll be excited about what CN and the RCGA have done," Graham said. "When we talk about best practices, they're always at the top.

"This tournament will give you the feel of a national championship. This is a big deal."

The LPGA Tour's players have certainly made it feel like an elite event in recent times. They have flocked to the championship in recent years, including at last year's competition at Ottawa Hunt, which drew 48 of the top 50 money-winners.

Winner Katherine Hull led the field, which included Lorena Ochoa, Cristie Kerr, Paula Creamer, Suzann Petersen, Se Ri Pak, Michelle Wie, the since-retired Annika Sorenstam, Canadian star Lorie Kane, Julie Inkster, Morgan Pressel, Natalie Gulbis and Brittany Lincicome.

In Ottawa, nearly 69,000 fans took in the week's action, a tournament record likely to be challenged by Winnipeg, given the impressive successes of past events at St. Charles like the 1992 duMaurier and the 2000 AT&T Canada Senior Open.

Graham said Tuesday that Winnipeg can almost bank on such an elite field for 2010, and not just because of the money that will be offered.

"Look, players play to win," she said. "The money's great, but if you ask, the majority will say they want to win and have the trophies in their trophy cases. That's why I played.

"Plus, with the (LPGA's shrinking) schedule going the way it is, players are looking for places to play."

The LPGA Tour's players will be impressed with the 2010 site chosen by the RCGA and CN, Graham added.

"I know the players love the older, traditional golf courses, and St. Charles is just that," she said. "Coming to a golf course that is well-established, one that's got big trees, narrow fairways and smaller greens, it gives you the impression of a really big tournament, one that's got a lot of history to it.

"This is how the game's meant to be played."

Graham said the traditional venues excite the world's best female players in the same way the PGA Tour's members have been raving about the likes of Hamilton and Shaughnessy at the Canadian Open in recent years.

"Absolutely, the really traditional ones get everyone excited about playing," Graham said. "Me, for instance, I'm thinking about trying to qualify for next year's (U.S. Women's) Open because it's at Oakmont.

"They love the old-style, storied golf courses. It's so cool to say you won at somewhere where great players have come out of. It works on our tour, too."

After a couple of RCGA snubs, Winnipeg had been confirmed in 2007 as a possible location for a future women's Open, but association officials said last year that it wouldn't be until at least 2011, once CN worked out an extension of its sponsorship deal for the championship. The current deal expires at the end of next year.

But when the RCGA's preferred location, chosen but not announced and likely in Montreal, ran into issues with clubhouse construction that wouldn't be complete by next summer, a last-minute search was required, a search that led to Winnipeg.

tim.campbell@freepress.mb.ca

Republished from the Winnipeg Free Press print edition May 27, 2009 C1