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MAY/JUNE 08
By Rick Pledl Over the last 14 years, Wisconsin has had a front-row seat as the best young female players in the world worked their way up the ladder of professional golf. The vehicle for their ascent has been the Duramed Futures Tour, the top proving ground for players hoping to reach the LPGA Tour, the big leagues of women’s golf.
Wisconsin will add another chapter to its fascinating Futures Tour story line (see sidebar) when the tour visits Geneva National GC’s Palmer Course for the third consecutive year this spring. The 2008 Aurora Health Care Champ-ionship, with a purse which has been raised to $100,000, is scheduled for May 30 through June 1.
Last year at Geneva National, Sofie Andersson of Sweden won her first Futures Tour title when she shot 4-under-par 212 (70-72-70) to finish one stroke ahead of Brandi Jackson of Greenville, S.C., and amateur Esther Choe of Scottsdale, Ariz. Andersson, Jackson and Choe, who has since turned pro, are back competing on the Futures Tour in 2008 and are expected to return to Lake Geneva.
After a two-year absence, the Futures Tour returned to Wisconsin in 2006 for a three-year run at Geneva National’s Palmer Course. The 2008 Aurora Health Care Championship is the final event under that initial contract with the Futures Tour, but tournament director Howard Storck is hopeful that the tournament will be around for a while longer.
“We have had discussions with Aurora Health Care, and they are anxious to have it continue,” Storck said. “We are in active negotiations.”
However, the tournament recently lost its presenting sponsor, which means new opportunities for other businesses which would like to get involved.
“We’re always looking for new sponsors in active roles,” Storck said.
He’s also always looking for volunteers in a variety of capacities – everything from caddies to Lake Geneva-area residents willing to let players stay in their homes during the tournament.
The 144-player field will be comprised of 142 Futures Tour players and two local amateurs who earned their spots through a special qualifying event. The qualifier, scheduled for Tuesday of tournament week (May 27), is open to female amateurs who live within 100 miles of Geneva National and have handicap indexes of 5.0 or lower.
Other events are planned all week leading up to the tournament, including a free instructional clinic by Futures Tour pros on Wednesday. Morning and afternoon pro-ams will be held on Thursday.
Proceeds from the tournament will go to the Geneva National Foundation and the Aurora Lakeland Medical Center in Elkhorn.
First established as the Tampa Bay Mini Tour in 1981, the Futures Tour has risen in stature as it has established closer ties to the LPGA.
The Futures Tour was named the official developmental tour of the LPGA Tour in 1999, the first season that top Futures players also were awarded LPGA Tour exemptions for the following season. The LPGA Tour purchased the Futures Tour last July, and the Futures Tour moved into LPGA headquarters in Daytona Beach, Fla., in December.
Another key development came in 2006, when Duramed Pharmaceuticals, Inc., was brought on as the Futures Tour’s title sponsor.
Today’s Duramed Futures Tour is truly a world tour, with players from 29 foreign nations and 40 states populating its player’s roster. The 2008 schedule boasts 18 events in 15 states stretching from March through October, and the total purse is a record $1.745 million. The final event of the season, the Georgia Invitational in Braselton, Ga., is essentially a post-season event for the top 70 players on the money list.
Go to www.aurorachampionship.com for more information on tickets, sponsorships and volunteering for the tournament.
The 2008 Aurora Health Care Championship represents the Futures Tour’s 12th visit to Wisconsin in the last 14 years. It’s been quite a magical run, featuring famous players and the not-so-famous, good weather and bad and through it all some of the finest golf seen in these parts. The women of the Futures Tour can flat-out play, and they have authored some impressive story lines in Wisconsin, including the following:
- Wisconsin’s first Futures Tour event ended with a home-state champion. Calling it “fate,” Port Washington native Lisa Kartheiser won the 1995 tournament at Rainbow Springs CC in Mukwonago for her second Futures Tour victory.
- Today, Lorena Ochoa is the No. 1 player in the world, and her quest for that spot began in Wisconsin. On May 31, 2002, Ochoa, wearing a University of Arizona cap, hit her first drive as a professional off the 10th tee at Ironwood GC in Sussex. Three days later, Ochoa came within inches of holing out from the 18th fairway before tapping in for birdie to finish one stroke back.
- Wisconsin has witnessed some other dazzling Futures Tour debuts. Korean star Grace Park turned pro in Wisconsin and tied for 49th in her first pro tournament at the 1999 event at Naga-Waukee GC in Pewaukee. Katherine Hull, a former All-American at Pepperdine University, turned pro just prior to the 2003 tournament at Ironwood, then she won it in a two-hole sudden- death playoff.
- LaRee Sugg made a unique sort of history in Wisconsin. Sugg, an African-American, qualified for the LPGA Tour in the mid-1990s and again in the early 2000s, but in between she played the Futures Tour and won the 1998 tournament at Naga-Waukee. Only three African-Americans have earned membership on the LPGA Tour in its 58-year history: Althea Gibson, Renee Powell and Sugg. None of them won an LPGA title, but Sugg nonetheless earned a history-making victory on the Futures Tour in Wisconsin.
- In addition to Kartheiser, many other Wisconsin residents have teed it up in Futures Tour competition here, playing in front of friends and family and creating great memories of a more personal nature. Following is a list of those players (admittedly incomplete, in no particular order and including some amateurs): Sue Ginter, Joellyn Erdmann-Crooks, Patty Frohna, Katie Connelly, Erin Carney, Heather Zakhar, Kimberly Millies, Kelly Sheehan, Andrea Meeker, Mary Fink, Carrie Dykstra, Anna Acker-Macosko, Malinda Johnson, Raphael Garstecki, Holly Nehs, Shelley Wendels, Cathy Jo Johnson, Susan Thielbar, Maggie Leef, Kimberly Malison, Laura Tzakis, Breinnan Pirk, Katie Elliott, Carly Werwie, Erika Brown and Terri Taibl.
The champions
1995 Lisa Kartheiser Rainbow Springs GC 73-71-74–218
1996 Vickie Moran Rainbow Springs GC 73-73-72–218
1997 Nicole Jeray Naga-Waukee GC 70-72-70–212
1998 LaRee Sugg Naga-Waukee GC 71-71-71–213
1999 Jane Egan Naga-Waukee GC 65-72–137*
2000 Jen Brody Ironwood GC 71-69-70–210
2001 Beth Bauer Ironwood GC 72-68-72–212
2002 Melinda Price Ironwood GC 74-73-71–218
2003 Katherine Hull Ironwood GC 71-70-69–210
2006 Song-Hee Kim Geneva National GC 73-72-69–214
2007 Sofie Andersson Geneva National GC 70-72-70–212
* – Shortened due to inclement weather.
Aurora Health Care Championship What: The Aurora Heath Care Championship, the seventh of 18 events on the 2008 Duramed Futures Tour.
When: May 30-June 1.
Where: Geneva National GC’s Palmer Course in Lake Geneva.
Who: An international field of 144 professionals and amateurs on their way up in professional golf, including a few local players who earn spots in the tournament through a qualifying event on May 27.
Format: 54 holes of stroke play. The field will be cut to the low 70 players and ties prior to the final round. Pro-ams, clinics and other events are scheduled throughout tournament week.
Following the Action: Daily tickets cost $7.50 each. Weekly passes are available ($15), as are family packages including food and beverage vouchers ($40). Kids under 12 are free.
Last Year: Sofie Andersson of Sweden shot 70-72-70–212 on the Palmer Course to win her first Futures Tour title by two strokes over Brandi Jackson of Greenville, S.C., and Esther Choe of Scottsdale, Ariz.
For More Info: Visit www.aurorachampionship.org
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