Pros pay Windsor a visit this week for POC MED Golf Classic

Professional golf comes to Windsor this week with the inaugural POC Med Golf Classic at Windsor Golf Club, bringing with it a chance to see up-and-coming female golfers in your own backyard.

The 54-hole tournament, Friday through Sunday, features a $100,000 purse, including $15,000 for the winner.

Imagine seeing the next Michelle Wie or other young superstar before she hits the big time.

“These women, you might not know their names right now, but these are names that will become household names in the next few years,” said Bret Lasky of the Symetra tour.

The tournament features 144 of the top women’s golfers from the United States and 28 other countries, and includes 24 players from California.

Players began arriving early this week and started practice rounds Tuesday on the 6,385-yard, par-72 course, green and lush from this year’s record rains.

A pro-am for charity will take place Thursday before the tournament tees off at 7:30 a.m. Friday. Parking and tickets are free for all three days.

The stakes are high for these golfers. The top 10 players on the Symetra Tour’s money list at the end of the season in October earn LPGA Tour membership for 2018.

The POC Med Golf Classic is the fourth event of the 2017 season and seven of the current top 10 on the money list are in the field.

The top two on the list will miss the tournament for different reasons.

No. 1 Olivia Jordan-Higgins of Britain will skip the event to rest her injured back. No. 2 Anne-Catherine Tanguay is attempting to Monday qualify for the next LPGA event in Hawaii.

No. 3 money winner Daniela Darquea of Quito, Ecuador, won the IOA Championship two weeks ago and will be one to watch this weekend.

Course officials are on weather watch as rain is in the forecast for Friday and possibly Saturday. Friday will be mostly cloudy and cool with some showers and possibly a thunderstorm.

Saturday will be cool with a little rain while Sunday is expected to remain cool, but mostly sunny.

Two dozen golfers are from California, including seven from Northern California: Sara Banke (Danville), Emily Childs (Alameda), Lisa Ferrero (Lodi), Grace Na (Alameda), Lauren Kim (Los Altos), Jenni Jenq (Saratoga) and Kim Welch (Sacramento).

There are also several in the field that played college golf in Northern California including two who helped win Stanford the 2015 National Championship: Mariah Stackhouse and Lauren Kim. Canadian Megan played college golf at San Jose State.

The Symetra tour is returning to Northern California for the first time since 2001 when Beth Bauer won the California Futures Classic in Patterson. The current West Coast swing started in Beaumont with the IOA Championship two weeks ago and then last week in Mesa for the Gateway Classic.

Initially the commitment to Windsor is only for one year, because the seed money comes from a partnership with the Taiwan LPGA, which wanted to sponsor a third tournament in the western U.S.

But Windsor town officials, tour officials and golf aficionados are optimistic it can become an annual event.

It’s been a while since Windsor hosted pro golf. The men’s Hogan Tour (later called the Nike Tour and Web.com), a similar qualifying tour for the PGA, played here from 1990 to 1995.

Of note:

Natalie Sheary (West Hartford, Connecticut) leads the Tour in driving accuracy through three events. She has hit 106 of 109 fairways (97.2 percent).

Jenny and Kristin Coleman, identical twins, are both in the field this week, the first time they have competed together this year.

Thailand’s Benyapa Niphatsophon finished inside the top 20 in her first two starts on the tour ranks ninth on the money list.

Samantha Richdale became the career leader in money earned on the Symetra Tour with her top 25 finish last week at the Gateway Classic at Longbow Golf Club. In 135 career events, she has earned $227,242.

Swaziland’s Nobuhle Dlamini will make her Symetra Tour debut this week.

You can reach Staff Writer Lori A. Carter at 707-521-5470 or lori.carter@pressdemocrat.com. On Twitter @loriacarter.