The WPGA Tour of Australasia, formerly known as the ALPG Tour, is a professional
golf
Golf is a club-and-ball sport in which players use various clubs to hit balls into a series of holes on a course in as few strokes as possible.
Golf, unlike most ball games, cannot and does not use a standardized playing area, and coping ...
tour for
women
A woman is an adult female human. Prior to adulthood, a female human is referred to as a girl (a female child or adolescent). The plural ''women'' is sometimes used in certain phrases such as "women's rights" to denote female humans regardl ...
which is based in
Australia. WPGA stands for Women's Professional Golfers' Association.
The tour was founded as the Ladies Professional Golf Association of Australia (LPGAA) in 1972 by Alan Gillott, who also later on founded ''The Golfer'' newspaper, a free publication provided to golfers and golf clubs, Australia-wide. The LPGAA switched to ALPG Tour in 1991. The first events featured twelve competitors, and the early years were a struggle. However the long-term trend was of gradual expansion and by 2004 there were over 150 members.
The season features about a dozen tournaments, usually played over the Australian summer between November and March. The
ANZ Ladies Masters
The RACV Gold Coast Challenge was a golf tournament played in Australia. It was one of the leading tournaments on the ALPG Tour and was co-sanctioned by the Ladies European Tour (LET) since 2001. Between 1997 and 2000 it was an event on the LPGA ...
and MFS
Women's Australian Open
The Women's Australian Open is a women's professional golf tournament played in Australia, operated by Golf Australia and the WPGA Tour of Australasia, long co-sanctioned by the Ladies European Tour (LET). Beginning with the 2012 event, it i ...
have long been the leading events on the tour, with both being co-sanctioned with the more prestigious
Ladies European Tour
The Ladies European Tour is a professional golf tour for women which was founded in 1978. It is based at Buckinghamshire Golf Club near London in England. Like many UK-based sports organisations it is a company limited by guarantee, a legal str ...
(LET) which helps attract a higher quality field. In 2010 the
New Zealand Women's Open became the third tournament to be co-sanctioned by the LET. The ANZ Masters, the Australian Open and the New Zealand Open have prize funds of
A$600,000, A$500,000 and A$400,000 respectively, each higher than the prize funds of all 10 remaining events combined. The New South Wales Open and the Royal Canberra Ladies Classic have purses of A$100,000 and A$125,000 respectively, and no other event has a purse of over A$25,000. Since 2012, the Women's Australian Open has also been co-sanctioned by the U.S.
LPGA Tour
The Ladies Professional Golf Association (LPGA) is an American organization for female golfers. The organization is headquartered at the LPGA International in Daytona Beach, Florida, and is best known for running the LPGA Tour, a series of wee ...
; in its first year as an LPGA Tour event, the prize fund increased to
US$
The United States dollar (symbol: $; code: USD; also abbreviated US$ or U.S. Dollar, to distinguish it from other dollar-denominated currencies; referred to as the dollar, U.S. dollar, American dollar, or colloquially buck) is the official ...
1.1 million. The purse increased to US$1.2 million effective in 2013.
Australian
Karrie Webb
Karrie Ann Webb (born 21 December 1974) is an Australian professional golfer. She plays mainly on the U.S.-based LPGA Tour, and also turns out once or twice a year on the ALPG Tour in her home country. She is a member of the World Golf Hall of ...
, one of the leading players in global women's golf, has a background on the tour, and continues to play in its two main events each season. However Webb and other leading members of the ALPG spend most of the year competing outside Australia, principally on the LPGA Tour and the
Ladies European Tour
The Ladies European Tour is a professional golf tour for women which was founded in 1978. It is based at Buckinghamshire Golf Club near London in England. Like many UK-based sports organisations it is a company limited by guarantee, a legal str ...
.
In January 2012, New Zealand's
Lydia Ko
Lydia Ko (born 24 April 1997) is a New Zealand professional golfer and the No. 1-ranked woman professional golfer. She first achieved the top ranking on 2 February 2015 at of age, making her the youngest player of either gender to be ranked ...
became the youngest person ever to win a professional golf tour event by winning the ALPG-sanctioned
Bing Lee Samsung Women's NSW Open.
In 2021, the ALPG Tour switched to its current name – WPGA Tour of Australasia.
2009 Schedule and results
2010 Schedule and results
2011 Schedule and results
2012 Schedule and results
2013 Schedule and results
2014 Schedule and results
2015 Schedule and results
2016 Schedule and results
2017 Schedule and results
2018 Schedule and results
2019 Schedule and results
2020 Schedule and results
2021 Schedule and results
2022 Schedule and results
2023 Schedule and results
See also
*
Women's World Golf Rankings
The Women's World Golf Rankings, also known for sponsorship reasons as the Rolex Rankings, were introduced in February 2006. They are sanctioned by eight women's golf tours and the organisations behind them: Ladies Professional Golf Association ( ...
References
External links
Official site
{{Women's Professional Golf Tours
Professional golf tours
Women's golf in Australia