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LET announce 2007 Tour Schedule

The Ladies European Tour's executive director Alexandra Armas today announced the 2007 Ladies European Tour (LET) schedule, which will feature a minimum of 25 events with prize money of more than €11.02 million, the highest ever in LET history.

“The 2006 season has been a huge success with new events in Switzerland and Dubai and has laid the foundations that will enable the Tour to grow in the future,” said Armas. “However with four new events in 2007 and the return of The Solheim Cup to Sweden , I am confident that 2007 will be the Tour's most exciting year to date.

“The Solheim Cup at Halmstad will be at the forefront of everyone's mind throughout the season and let's hope that Helen Alfredsson and her team can bring The Cup back to Europe .”

The four new tournaments in 2007 are: the MFS Women's Australian Open at Royal Sydney, the De Vere Ladies Scottish Open at The Carrick on Loch Lomond, the Northern Ireland Ladies Open at Hilton Templepatrick Hotel and Country Club and the Madrid Ladies Masters in Spain, at a venue soon to be announced.

The inaugural Madrid Ladies Masters will be a limited field event which will feature a prize fund of €400,000. The tournament will be organised and promoted by Double Match, who also promote the successful Catalonia Ladies Masters and the event will be supported by the Comunidad de Madrid.

The Madrid Ladies Masters, from 5 th -7 th October, will be the penultimate event of the season, leading up to an exciting end-of-year climax with the Dubai Ladies Masters in December.

The Ladies European Masters will now be played at The Oxfordshire in England in 2008 and the Ladies Irish Open will be another important addition to the 2008 schedule, after a four year absence.

The final major championship of the year, the Weetabix Women's British Open, is always one of the most eagerly anticipated events of the season and in 2007, Tour players and staff alike are excited to be breaking new ground, as the event will be played on the Old Course at St Andrews . It is the first time that the home of golf will host a women's professional tournament.

In 2007, seven events will feature prize money in excess of €500,000 and eight existing events have increased their contracted prize funds. They are: the Women's World Cup of Golf, the Tenerife Ladies Open, the Deutsche Bank Ladies Swiss Open, the Vediorbis Open de France, KLM Ladies Open, the OTP Bank Ladies Central European Open, the Catalonia Ladies Masters and the Scandinavian TPC Hosted by Annika.

Furthermore, there will be ten more events in 2007 than in 2004, when there were 15 events on the LET schedule and a total prize fund of €7,298,245. There will five more events than in 2005 and four more than in 2006, which demonstrates the increasing popularity of the Ladies European Tour.

December 19, 2006