(Cheshire, England – June 9 2005) The Robe di Kappa Ladies European Tour announced today that The 2005 European Solheim Cup team will be named on Sunday 28th August, at Helsinki GC, in Finland.
The Ladies Finnish Masters, from 26 – 28th August, will be the final qualification event for The 2005 European Solheim Cup team. Catrin Nilsmark, the 2005 European Solheim Cup Captain, will formally announce the team to travel to the USA, at a press conference following the conclusion of the tournament.
The Ladies Finnish Masters will be the second event on the Volvo Cross Country Challenge. Due to unforeseeable market circumstances, a reduced field Pro Am will take the place of the Ladies Norwegian Open, on Saturday 20th August at Losby GC, Norway.
Thanks to a number of new partnerships with the Norwegian Golf Federation and key sponsors in the Scandinavian market, the LET is confident that a full field Norwegian event will take place in 2006, for which discussions are underway with a number of potential promoters.
The Volvo Cross Country Challenge is a brand new concept with a dedicated order of merit for the LET tournaments played in the Nordic Region.
This is the first year of a partnership between the Robe di Kappa Ladies European Tour and Volvo Cars Nordic.
In addition to the individual prize funds on offer for each event there will be a bonus pool of $100,000 which will be awarded to the top ten players of the order of merit at the end of the Volvo Cross Country Challenge (Volvo XC Challenge) as well as a Volvo car to the winner.
The Solheim Cup is a biennial trans-Atlantic team matchplay competition and is considered the premier event in women’s world golf.
Founded in 1990 by Karsten Manufacturing Corporation (KMC) – makers of PING golf equipment – The Solheim Cup features 12 of the top European born players from the Robe Di Kappa Ladies European Tour (LET) and 12 top American born players from the Ladies Professional Golf Association (LPGA).
Played over three days, The Solheim Cup consists of 28 matches – eight foursome matches, eight four-ball matches and 12 singles played on the final day.
After a momentous European victory at the 2003 Solheim Cup witnessed by almost 100,000 supporters at Barsebäck Golf & Country Club in Sweden, Europe, captained once again by Sweden’s Catrin Nilsmark, will be aiming to win for the first time on American soil when the two teams play the ninth edition of The Solheim Cup in the United States of America at Crooked Stick Golf Club in Carmel, Indiana from 9th-11th September.
