CN Canadian Women's Tour stop in Beloeil, QueBernard Brault
Richmond, B.C. will be the launch pad for the 2012 CN Canadian Women's Tour, Canada's only professional golf tour for women.
Richmond Country Club, which last played host to a Women's Tour event in 2008, will open the season May 14. The club has previously played host to several Golf Canada sanctioned events, including the 2006 CN Future Links Pacific Championship and the 2010 Canadian Junior Boys Championship.
Club de golf Beloeil in Quebec, the Tour's second stop on June 11, is hosting a CN Canadian Women's Tour event for the second consecutive season.
Legends of the Niagara in Niagara, Ont., site of the 2004 Canadian Women's Open, will stage the Tour finale on June 25.
Winners of each of the three Tour events will receive an exemption into the CN Canadian Women's Open, to be played this year at Vancouver Golf and Country Club in August. As well, an additional two exemptions will be awarded based on the season-ending Order of Merit standings. Tournament winners will also have three special invitations to use on the Symetra Tour in 2012, the LPGA's developmental circuit.
Also, the top three players on the Order of Merit will each earn direct entry into stage two of the LPGA Q-School.
Jessica Shepley of Oakville, Ont., captured her second straight Jocelyne Bourassa Player of the Year award after topping the points list last year. Shepley went on to capture her first win on the LPGA Futures Tour in Concord, New Hampshire in 2011.
Among the players who have used the CN Canadian Women's Tour as a launching pad to a future professional career are Lorie Kane, Alena Sharp, Isabelle Beisiegel, Stephanie Sherlock, Rebecca Lee-Bentham and Maude-Aimée LeBlanc - the latter two having earned their LPGA Tour playing cards last fall.
Other CN Canadian Women's Tour graduates include world number one ranked Yani Tseng, American Solheim Cup player Ryan O'Toole, Sara Brown and Katy Harris.
For more information on the 2012 schedule, check out cncanadianwomenstour.ca