Lexus Cup for Women Golfers

Except the Solheim Cup, the Lexus Cup was also an annual golf tournament played between 2005 and 2008 for professional women golfers contested by a team representing Asia and an international team representing the rest of the world. However, it was was sanctioned by the LPGA Tour, but any winnings were unofficial and were not included in the LPGA money list standings.

The Lexus Cup, namely, its golf shop sponsor was Lexus, the luxury automobile maker in Japan. It was one many new team golf tournaments founded on the model of the Ryder Cup since that tournament became a star attraction in golf in the 1980s. In women’s golf it complemented the Solheim Cup, which is contested by teams from United States and Europe.

First, the Lexus Cup started on December 9-11, 2005, with a total purse of US0,000.

In 2005, the two team captains were chosen early in the year and selected the players that made up their respective teams. Starting in 2006 a qualifying system was used, with each team composed of the top four players from the Women’s World Golf Rankings, the top four remaining players from the ADT Official Money List, two sponsor’s picks, and two captain’s picks.

As for the format of this play, it adopted to the match play, and it endured three days, often Friday through Sunday, with each golfer playing every day. The Friday schedule had six foursomes matches; Saturday had six four-balls; and 12 singles matches are played on Sunday. This was a format modified from the Presidents Cup. If the scores were tied at the end of the singles matches, the captains competed in a sudden-death playoff. A foursomes match is a competition between two teams of two golfers. The golfers on the same team take alternate shots on each hole with the same ball, with one golfer teeing off on all odd-numbered holes and the other teeing off on even-numbered holes. Each hole is won by the team that completes the hole in the fewest number of strokes. A four-ball match is also a competition between two teams of two golfers, but all four golfers play their own balls throughout the round rather than alternating shots, and each hole is won by the team whose individual golfer has the lowest score. A singles match is a standard matchplay competition between two golfers.