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Ladies World Cup starts 2006 LET season

The Ladies European Tour 2006 season kicks off in style this week with the Women's World Cup in South Africa at Sun City, a prestigious hotel and resort complex in the North West Province from 20 – 22 January.

The tournament returns to South African shores for the second year in a row after an outstanding competition in 2005, won by the Japanese pairing of Ai Miyazato and Rui Kitada. The 2006 event takes place on the Gary Player Country Club course, voted as the best course in South Africa in 2005, and home to amongst others, the Million Dollar Golf Challenge.

Following the inaugural event in 2005, with a worldwide television audience of over 450 million households, the Women's World Cup is set to be one of the major highlights on the women's global golfing calendar, attracting the world's best players including the US, British, South African and Australian Open Champions.

The English, Swedish, Japanese and American teams headline the event with star names such as World no.1 Annika Sorenstam , England 's Laura Davies and American teenager Paula Creamer in attendance. This year, Ai Miyazato and Sakura Yokomine represent Japan , the defending champion, but they face a stern challenge in defeating the 19 other teams in the event.

The 20 qualifying nations as follows: Australia, Brazil, Canada, Columbia, England, Finland, France, Germany, Italy, Japan, Korea, New Zealand, Philippines, Scotland, South Africa (host nation), Spain, Sweden, Taiwan, USA and Wales.

The $1,1 million event has become the first-ever truly worldwide team competition co-sanctioned by both the Ladies European Tour and the LPGA, and consists of a three-day, 54-hole competition with a different format on each day: 18 holes of foursomes; 18 holes of four-ball; and 18 holes of stroke-play. The winners will be determined by combining each team's scores from all three days.

It is Sörenstam's first appearance in South Africa and, with live coverage being provided by the South African Broadcasting Corporation (SABC), millions of viewers will be able to tune in to catch the live action in South Africa , the USA , UK , Ireland , Finland , Sweden , Australia and New Zealand .

Laurette Maritz and partner Ashleigh Simon will head up the South African challenge as the home nation ensuring vociferous support from the galleries. The full list of 20 teams and 40 players is shown below.

TEAMS:

Australia – Shani Waugh and Rachel Hetherington

Brazil – Candy Hannemann and Luciana Bemvenuti

Canada – Lori Kane and AJ Eathorne

Columbia – Marissa Baena and Cristina Baena

England – Kirsty Taylor and Laura Davies

Finland – Minea Blomqvist and Riikka Hakkarainen

France – Gwladys Nocera and Karine Icher

Germany – Anja Monke and Miriam Nagl

Italy – Veronica Zorzi and Silvia Cavalleri

Japan – Ai Miyazato and Sakura Yokomine

Korea – Meena Lee and Bo Bae Song

New Zealand – Lynnette Brooky and Gina Scott

Philippines – Dorothy Delasin and Ria Quiazon

Scotland – Catriona Matthew and Janice Moodie

South Africa – Laurette Maritz and Ashleigh Simon

Spain – Marta Prieto and Paula Marti

Sweden – Annika Sorenstam and Liselotte Neumann

Taiwan – Amy Hung and Yu Ping Lin

United States – Paula Creamer and Natalie Gulbis

Wales – Becky Brewerton and Becky Morgan

January 19, 2006