The ANZ Ladies Masters will this year once again provide several up and coming golfers the chance to test their skills in such a significant professional golf tournament when several world class amateurs line up at the Crowne Plaza Royal Pines Resort on the Gold Coast from February 8th - 11th.

The record number of eight amateurs will strive to emulate the stunning performance of the then 16-year-old amateur, Amy Yang, who when winning the 2006 ANZ Ladies Masters, became the youngest player to claim a Ladies European Tour title.

Amateurs filled three of the first five placings in the 2006 event and Tournament Chairman, Bob Tuohy has again opened the door for similar heroics.

"The tournament has a history of providing opportunities not just for some of the World's leading and emerging professional golfers but for some of the game's most successful amateurs," said Tuohy.

"Karrie Webb first played the tournament as an invited amateur in 1993 and finished 8th. We now know just what Karrie has gone on to mean to this event since and what she has achieved in professional golf but there have been several others young promising amateurs who have benefited from the exposure to tournament golf that a start at the ANZ Ladies Masters has provided. It is a source of pride for our team that after creating the opportunity for Amy (Yang) last year, she grabbed it with both hands and is now shaping as a future star of the game."

"It is a great opportunity for these players of the future to match themselves against a field that will again contain many of the game's leading female golfers including the five time winner Karrie Webb, America's number one player, Cristie Kerr, Laura Davies, Natalie Gulbis and the long hitting Brittany Lincicome," added Tuohy. "As the last few years have shown some have proven more than capable of matching it with the best."

Since her dramatic victory last year, Amy Yang has gone on to join the professional ranks and in finishing fourth in her very first event as a professional at the Dubai Ladies Classic in November, she confirmed Tuohy's sentiments. American Tiffany Joh and Taiwan's Ya-Ni (Ruby) Tseng shared third place last year after Joh had finished 13th on her first visit to the event as an 18-year-old in 2005. Tseng will be back in 2007 but this time as a professional having recently made the decision to turn to the paid ranks. Joh won the 2006 US Public Links Championship just a few months after her great week on the Gold Coast.

This year Tuohy and his team have again invited several outstanding amateur golfers including the brilliant 17-year-old South African Ashleigh Simon who is considered by many to be one of the brightest young stars of World Golf. Simon will again represent South Africa at the Women's World Cup prior to the ANZ Ladies Masters and last October played a key role in South Africa's victory at the Espirito Santo Trophy event in her home country. Simon has won an event on the South African Ladies Golf Tour in each of the last three years including in 2004 when she won the South African Women's Open as a 14-year-old to go with her South African Amateur title that same year.

Several of Australia's best female amateurs have also earned starts as a result of their performances in events in the last twelve months. The Australian Espirito Santo Team of Emma Bennett, Frances Bondad and Kate Combes will be joined by Australian Amateur Champion Helen Oh, Master Card Junior Masters winner, Sarah Oh and the Greg Norman Junior Masters winner, Haeji Kang. The Aaron Baddeley International winner, China's Feng Shan Shan will also take her place in the field.

The ANZ Ladies Masters will be telecast by Network Ten in Australia and to a vast international audience and offers prizemoney of AUD$800,000.

Source - ANZ Ladies Masters

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