Cindy LaCrosse
Defending champion Cindy LaCrosse of Tampa, Florida returns to El Tigre Golf & Country Club to defend her title at this week's Santorini Riviera Nayarit Classic.
The event is the LPGA Futures Tour's third tournament in Nuevo Vallarta, Nayarit, Mexico.
LaCrosse finished the 2010 season on the Futures Tour as the top money winner and as the 2010 Player of the Year, earning full 2011 LPGA Tour status. Her win in Mexico was her first professional victory of three tournament wins last year.
The Santorini Riviera Nayarit Classic will feature a purse of $125,000, with a cash prize of $17,500 and $12,500 for the runner-up. The tournament will be contested over 54 holes (three rounds) in a stroke-play format.
In addition to LaCrosse, five top-10 finishers from the 2010 tournament in Mexico will be in the field. They are: 3rd - Chelsea Curtis of New Seabury, Massachusetts; tie for 4th - Hannah Jun San Diego; 6th - Jane Rah of Torrance, California; and Mallory Blackwelder of Versailles, Kentucky, Esther Choe of Scottsdale, Arizona, and Adrienne White of Red Deer, Alberta, Canada, who all tied for ninth.
LPGA Futures Tour professionals in the tournament field who are natives of Mexico are: Lili Alvarez of Durango; Ani Carrillo of Guadalajara; Tanya Dergal of Durango; Marcela Leon of Monterrey; Pamela Ontiveros of Gomez Palacio; and Sophia Sheridan of Guadalajara.
This week's Santorini Riviera Nayarit Classic is the LPGA Futures Tour's only event held outside the United States.
