Columnist Victoria Sun: Ladies Challenge Golf Tour to make local appearance

Victoria Sun

Wednesday, May 10, 2000 | 10:47 a.m.

Victoria Sun's golf column appears Wednesday. Reach her at 259-4078 or by e-mail at victoria@lasvegassun.com.

Following the progress of aspiring PGA Tour players has been fairly simple since the Buy.com Tour (formerly the Nike Tour) began in 1990.

Although there are several other mini-tours, the Buy.com Tour is the official developmental tour for the PGA. Many former Buy.com professionals have graduated to the PGA Tour.

But what about the hundreds of women golfers trying to make a living and possibly latch onto the LPGA Tour?

From May 23-25 at the Badlands Golf Club, the fledgling Ladies Challenge Golf Tour will make the seventh tour stop of its inaugural season in Las Vegas.

Before this year, the two primary developmental-type tours for women were the Futures Tour and the Players West Tour, which offer minimal purses. Seeing a need for a new tour designed with the players and spectators in mind, Athena Chakeres came up with the Ladies Challenge Golf Tour.

"There was a need for another place for the lady pros to play," Chakeres said. "The Futures Tour started to have a qualifier this year and they're only allowing a certain number of people to play, leaving a few hundred ladies with no place to play.

"So I decided to start a new tour."

As of Tuesday, the field of 28 players in the Las Vegas event will include local golfers Kristin Sunderhaft and Mary Jane Fernandez. Chakeres said there will be a $5,000 minimum purse and hopes to raise more through a pro-am that will be played May 22 at Badlands.

The cost for the pro-am is $250 per player with a 1:30 p.m. shotgun start. The fee includes tee prizes, lunch and skill prizes. A percentage of the proceeds will benefit St. Jude Children's Research Hospital and the rest will go toward the purse.

On May 21, some of the tour players will host a free junior clinic at Badlands for kids 18 and under.

Chakeres' playing career was put on hold after a car accident limited her to teaching golf in South Carolina from 1993-96. From 1997-99 she played on both the Futures and Players West tours. She plans on playing in a few of her own events if she has time.

The tournament is free to the public, with the first players teeing off at 7:30 a.m.

"People always wonder where the women play from. We'll be playing 6,001 yards," she added.

Following the Las Vegas stop the ladies will be playing at the Fairway Pines Golf Club in Colorado June 1-6.

* WATCHING WOODS: For Tiger Woods fans who can never be sure when he will be on TV because he doesn't announce his tournament playing schedule in advance, here's one for you. The Golf Channel will broadcast the Deutsche Bank-SAP Open starting at 9 a.m. May 18-21, so mark your calendars. Woods is defending champion of the tournament and will compete in a field that includes Colin Montgomerie, Lee Westwood, Nick Price and Jesper Parnevik.

* GIFT IDEA: Mother's Day is Sunday. So if you're tired of giving flowers, perfume or other traditional gifts, here's something for that special woman in your life -- provided she is an LPGA golf enthusiast.

A collector's edition coffee table book called "Champions of Women's Golf: Celebrating Fifty Years of the LPGA" is now available. The 156-page hardcover book has more than 200 pictures that accompany the text. For information call Deborah Levinson of QuailMark Books at (941) 417-2577.