SA women making inroads

While women's professional golf may have some way to go before it can display the strength in depth of our men on tour, it is fast making inroads.

At last we are seeing the processes put in place which will help the women's professional game to grow.

The administrators, and the sponsors who have come on board should be applauded.

2014 has been a great year so far for SA Women's Professional Golf.

The launch of the inaugral Sunshine Ladies Golf Tour has been a great boost for locally based players, and it was wonderful to see players, such as Ashleigh Simon, Lee-Anne Pace and Stacy Bregman who have all make their mark on the top overseas tours competing and showing their support.

From small beginnings - even the largest Oak tree was once a little acorn, and we can only hope that this tour will continue growing.  Remember how "small" the men's Sunshine Tour once was? Now it has more co-sanctioned European Tour events than any other country, and has provided many of our top overseas stars with their "schooling" and a foothold to climb onto the major tours.

We have, in the past few years, see South African women golfers win on the Ladies European Tour, and Lee-Anne Pace has won the Order of Merit on that tour (with 5 wins in a single season) and come close to winning it for a second time.

The largest women's professional golf tour, in terms of the number of events, prize money, and World Ranking Points is the LPGA, by a long way.

2014 has seen three South African women golfers playing events on the LPGA, which is quite astounding given the relatively small pool of actively playing women professional golfers in the country.

Although Ashleigh Simon and Lee-Anne Pace began the season with limited playing rights on the tour, but success breeds success and they have played their way up the standings.

Both of these talented golfers played in the US Women's Open on the Pinehusrt #2 course, the recent Women's British Open at Royal Birkdale, and both are in the field for the Wegmans LPGA Championship which is the next Major on the tour.

The bigger an event, in terms of prize money and "status", the stronger the field it attracts. The stronger the field the more World Ranking Points are on offer. Both earnings (from the larger purses) and World Ranking Points earned help to qualify a player for future "big" events, which is why I say that "success breeds success".

At the end of the current LPGA Tour Season the top 90 players on the Official Money List will have full playing rghts for next season. Despite limited starts so far both Ashleigh Simon and Lee-Anne Pace are well on track to achieve this mark.

Currently Lee-Anne is in 89th position, with earnings of $58,189 (played 8 events) and Asheleigh in 90th spot with $57,263 (11 events played).

At the end of the 2013 season the player in 90th place had earnings of $68,650, so if we work on around $80,000 being needed this season they are both well on track.

Our 3rd representative on the LPGA is Paula Reto, who is struggling a bit in comparison. As a relative rookie to the paid ranks she does not have the experience (yet) of her compatriots and it is undoubtedly a huge learning curve for her.

On the Ladies European Tour Lee-Anne and Ashleigh are not featuring as high up the rankings as they have in the past, due only to the fact that their efforts have been largely concentrated on the LPGA.  Stacy Bregman, however, is in her best form and a win on that tour cannot be far off. She has come close a number of times already this season, and is currently 14th on the Order Of Merit - where most of those ahead of her are only there by way of large winnings in the big co-sanctioned events such as the Ricoh Women's British Open. (Stacy played in the Ricoh Women's British Open, and mssed the cut by a single shot. Had she made the cut she would likely have been in the Top 10 on the Order of Merit, where she was earlier in the season) Lee-Anne Pace, thanks in part to good earnings in the Women's British Open is currently in 11th spot, but will drop down the list as she continues to concentrate on the LPGA events.

Looking at the Rolex Women's World Ranking one sees the benefit of playing on the LPGA and making it into the Majors. Lee-Anne broke into the Top100 in the world around 2 years ago and is currently ranked #55.  With her improving ranking, coupled with her move up the official earnings on the LPGA, she will continue playing in events which have more WRP on offer, so expect to see her entrenched in the Top 50 in the world before long.

This week we see the following SA Women Golfers going for glory on the two largest tours:

Ladies European Tour : Ladies German Open 17 July to 20 July
Stacy Bregman
Kim Williams (one of our "rookies")
Nicole Garcia (another "rookie")
Connie Chen
LPGA Tour : Marathon Classic (in Ohio) 17 July to 20 July
Lee-Anne Pace
Ashleigh Simon
Paula Reto

SA Women's Golf is really making inroads, and hopefully this will lead to further sponsorhips becoming available (to players and for local events) and to Supersport showing more women's golf live.

Good luck to all our ladies playing this week!!