Karrie Webb
The LPGA Tour is set to descend upon Wildfire Golf Club at the JW Marriott Desert Ridge Resort and Spa in Phoenix, Arizona, for the inaugural playing of the RR Donnelley LPGA Founders Cup. A field of 134 players including Rolex Rankings No. 1 Yani Tseng, No. 2 Jiyai Shin, No. 5 Cristie Kerr and No. 10 Karrie Webb will compete for a purse of $1 million which will be donated entirely to charity. Song-Hee Kim, Morgan Pressel, Christina Kim, Paula Creamer, Laura Davies and LPGA and World Golf Halls of Fame member Juli Inkster will also compete alongside LPGA Tour rookies such as Jessica Korda, Jennifer Song and Belen Mozo.
Tseng enters the RR Donnelley LPGA Founders Cup as the hottest player in the world. She has already won four times world-wide this season, including the ISPS Handa Women's Australian Open and ANZ RACV Ladies Open co-sanctioned by Australian Ladies Professional Golf (ALPG) and the Ladies European Tour (LET) and the season-opening Honda LPGA Thailand on the LPGA Tour. Then the following week, going for four straight, she finished
third at the HSBC Women’s Champions, almost chasing down eventual
winner Webb with a final-day 67.
The RR Donnelley LPGA Founders Cup is a one-of-a-kind event that will honor the past, celebrate and showcase the present and provide for the future of the game. Come Sunday, $500,000 will be donated to the LPGA Foundation and its LPGA-USGA Girls Golf program, and another $500,000 to player-designated charities. The $500,000 allotted for player-designated charities is a pool which will be distributed to the top-10 finishers with the following breakdown: 1st: $200,000; 2nd: $100,000; 3rd: $55,000; 4th: 40,000; 5th: $30,000; 6th: $25,000; 7th: $20,000; 8th: $15,000, 9th: $10,000; 10th: $5,000.
While LPGA players will forgo tournament earnings in favor of charity, results at the RR Donnelley LPGA Founders Cup will impact the 2011 LPGA Official Money List. Players also will earn points towards Rolex Player of the Year, Louise Suggs Rolex Rookie of the Year, Rolex Rankings and U.S. Solheim Cup team. Scores posted also will count towards the prestigious Vare Trophy.
The LPGA Tour returns to Phoenix for the first time since 2009. Phoenix and the LPGA share a rich history with the women’s game. The LPGA has contested events in Phoenix in 36 different years with 28 different winners including one LPGA Founder, Marlene Hagge, and 12 LPGA and World Golf Halls of Fame members. Twenty-time LPGA Tour winner Davies has won the most times in Phoenix, capturing the Standard Register PING in four consecutive years (1994-1997). Webb was the last LPGA player to hoist a trophy in Phoenix in 2009.
While the best players of the present compete this week, the tournament will also feature special appearances by LPGA Founders Louise Suggs, Marilynn Smith and Shirley Spork. Spork will play in the pro-am as will LPGA and World Golf Halls of Fame members Betsy King, Nancy Lopez, Patty Sheehan and Pat Bradley. King, Lopez, Sheehan and Bradley will also kick off the first round in an 18-hole exhibition on the tournament course.
