INAUGURAL MURCIA LADIES
OPEN TOUR
For Lady Professionals and Lady Amateurs (handicap limit 9)
January 8 to February 23, 2008

BY COLIN FARQUHARSON

It has long been my ambition to run a mini-tour for Lady Professionals and single-figure Lady Amateurs in the warmer climate of the Iberian Peninsula during the winter months of January-February and maybe into March.
Why? Because there are umpteen mini-tours for men but very few for girls/women outwith the Ladies European Tour. And I like organising golf competitions.
It was Vagliano Trophy and Curtis Cup captain Mary McKenna who made up my mind for me to do something about it.
In her post-Vagliano Trophy Press Conference, she said that there was only so much training and practice her LGU Elite Squad could do during the winter. What the players really needed, said Mary, were regular competitions to play in from the start of the year up to the time when the established women’s amateur tournaments like the Spanish women’s open, etc teed off.
That coincided with my long-held view that there were ample courses and warm-weather practice facilities in Spain and Portugal to keep a player’s game in tune during the winter but no opportunities for competitive play to put an edge on that game.
With the help of my good friend and fellow Scot, Billy Sim, pictured above, the Director of Golf at Hacienda del Alamo Golf Resort in Murcia, Spain, there is a very good chance that I will be able to bring the MURCIA LADIES OPEN TOUR into being in the early part of 2008.
There are a lot of 't's' to be crossed and 'i's' to be dotted - the venues have still to be confirmed and may change - but I want to get the "word" and the dates out into the domain of female amateur and pro golf before individuals and Federations make their plans and bookings to go elsewhere at that time of the year.

To test the water in 2008, it will be a short, sharp schedule of little more than seven weeks with two 36-hole competitions per week, normally Tuesday-Wednesday and Friday-Saturday, working on the presumption that competitors would fly in on a Sunday and fly home on a Sunday.
For the benefit of leading amateurs, the inaugural Murcia Ladies Open Tour will stop the week before the Spanish women's open amateur championship in southern Spain near the end of February.

NON PROFIT-MAKING CIRCUIT
This will be a non profit-making circuit, geared to the needs of the players. All entry monies will go out again in the form of cash prizes for professionals and vouchers for amateurs, with a minimal deduction to pay administration costs.
Tentative plans are to use the local Murcia golf news website, http://www.clubmurcia.com/, to pass on information and accept entries in advance so that we know how many competitors want to play in each event. That website already pinpoints accommodation available in the area of the events.
Hacienda del Alamo Golf Resort, to all intents and purposes, will be the headquarters of the Murcia Ladies Open Tour. Most of the events will be played there.
It is a five-star golf resort with a Dave Thomas-designed 18-hole course, a six-hole academy course, a big driving range and excellent putting, short game and bunker practice facilities.

Hacienda del Almo Golf Resort has its own website - http://www.hdagolf.com/
It is served by two international airports – Murcia and Alicante. Murcia is quite close, Alicante Airport is about an hour’s drive away.
Until we have a tour news website arrangement up and running, any queries from players and federations should be sent to Colin Farquharson at colin@scottishgolfview.com
Hopefully, next week we will be in a position to name the venues to be used in addition to Hacienda del Alamo.

In the meantime, the plan is for the Week 1 events to be as follows:

JANUARY

Tuesday-Wednesday, 8th & 9th: Hacienda Del Alamo (36 holes).
Friday-Saturday, 11th & 12th: Hacienda del Alamo (36 holes).
Entry fee per tournament: Professional £40; Amateur £25.
The value of five prizes for the best pro scores and five prizes for the best amateur scores will depend on the number of entries per event.