Great Golfers Appearing in SemGroup LPGA
Clockwise from top left: STACY PRAMMANASUDH, NATALIE GULBIS, CHRISTIE KERR, CHRISTINA KIM
Photos courtesy of Octagon
Former University of Tulsa star and current Broken Arrow resident Stacy Prammanasudh highlights a field of world-champion golfers at The SemGroup Championship presented by John Q. Hammons currently being held at Cedar Ridge County Club. The tournament concludes May 6.
It is the seventh consecutive LPGA Championship to be held in greater Tulsa. Last year Cristie Kerr defeated three-time champion Annika Sorenstam in dramatic fashion, with the help of a course record 61 in the second round. Gloria Park won the inaugural event in 2001, with World Golf Hall of Famer Karrie Webb winning in 2003, and Sorenstam winning in 2002, 2004 and 2005.
Prammanasudh leads this year’s Team SemGroup Championship, which is made up of seven LPGA Tour professionals. Team SemGroup will compete in a season-long points race that concludes at the LPGA NW Arkansas Championship presented by John Q. Hammons. Cristie Kerr won the crown in 2006 and earned a $25,000 donation for the charity of her choice.
Tournament officials have announced that LPGA star Paula Creamer will play in the SemGroup Championship.
“The young LPGA golfers are starting to take over and Paula is one of the best of the bunch,” says Tournament Director Doug Eibling. “She is not only a great golf talent but also humble and a lot of fun to follow. She loves to interact with her fans.”
Nicknamed the “Pink Panther” because she always wears pink, Creamer is a huge crowd favorite at each event she enters. Her commitment comes less than a week after the Tournament announced that many of the bright young faces on the LPGA Tour will compete in Tulsa.
This will be Creamer’s fourth year competing in the Tulsa event. She first competed as an amateur in 2004, finishing tied for 59th. In 2005, she was the runner-up and earned $91,111. Last year, Creamer was in contention heading into Sunday, but a final round 77 relegated her to a 39th place finish.
Creamer has won three times in her career, including the SBS Open at Turtle Bay to open the 2007 season. She won her first event, the 2005 Sybase Classic, just four days before graduating high school.
That victory put her in the record books as the youngest player to win a multi-round event. Two months later she won the Evian Masters, making her the youngest and fastest person to reach $1 million in career earnings. Creamer was the 2005 Louise Suggs Rolex Rookie of the Year.
About The LPGA
The Ladies Professional Golf Association features the world’s best women golfers. The LPGA’s membership includes touring, teaching and club professionals. The LPGA Tour in 2007 features 35 events, with total prize money of nearly $55 million. Since 1981, the LPGA and its tournaments have raised approximately $180 million for charity. From the dreams of its 13 founders in 1950, the LPGA has evolved into the world’s pre-eminent women’s professional sports organization. The LPGA has grown from its roots as a playing tour into a nonprofit organization involved in every facet of golf. The LPGA is headquartered in Daytona Beach, Fla. For more information, log on to www.LPGA.com.
About Cedar Ridge Country Club
It all started with a vision and a dairy farm. In 1968 a group of Tulsa businessmen, headed by J.A. Buddy LaForturne, commissioned famed golf course designer Joe Finger to create a new golf course in Tulsa that would be heralded as one of the finest in the nation. Finger said Cedar Ridge ranks at the top of all his designed courses. It has the kind of strategic demands and natural beauty which pleases most golfers. It requires the player to hit a variety of shots with near perfect execution. Eighty-seven sand traps await the golfers’ errant shots. Upon completion, Cedar Ridge was rated among the top hundred courses by Golf Digest. For more information, visit www.cedarridgecountryclub.com.
Updated 04-30-2007
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