HARDER HALL WINNER WILL GET PLACE IN FUTURES TOUR EVENT

FROM: Lisa D. Mickey, LPGA Communications
The LPGA Futures Tour will award its amateur exemption into the Tour's season-opening event to the winner of the 2011 Harder Hall Women's Invitational. The 56th annual Harder Hall is being staged this week at Harder Hall Golf Club in Sebring, Florida, and will conclude on Saturday.
The Harder Hall winner will earn the spot reserved for an amateur at the LPGA Futures Tour's 2011 season kick-off at the Florida's Natural Charity Classic. That event will be staged March 25-27, at Lake Region Yacht and Country Club in Winter Haven, Fla.
Last year, the LPGA Futures Tour awarded its 2010 amateur exemption to the Daytona Beach Invitational to the winner of the South Atlantic Amateur, better known as "The Sally."
Amateur Jessica Korda was the winner of last year's "Sally," staged in nearby Ormond Beach, Florida. Korda qualified for the LPGA Tour last December at the LPGA Final Qualifying Tournament.
By adding the 2011 amateur winners from both the Harder Hall and "The Sally," the LPGA Futures Tour hopes to attract top-tier amateur talent to compete alongside its professionals in the Tour's two Florida tournaments. The South Atlantic Amateur will be held January 12-15.
"For the tournament's winner, I think this will be just one more feather in their cap," said legendary amateur Carol Semple Thompson, chairperson of the Harder Hall Women's Invitational. "So many of these young players are thinking about professional golf down the road, so this is a great opportunity to see what it's like at the next level."

Lisa Mickey