The one-day event will serve as Rosales’ thank-you tournament for her friends and backers who supported her throughout her five-year campaign on the lucrative LPGA tour, according to swing coach Bong Lopez.
And it is but fitting to stage it three weeks after her stirring win in Georgia where Rosales, a PLDT Global endorser, battled back from four shots down to claim a one-stroke victory over fancied Grace Park and three others and earn a whopping P13.4 million.
Expected to grace the occasion are Al Panlilio of PLDT Global, patrons Dr. Jack Arroyo of American Eye Center, Choy Cojuangco, Gerome Velasco and Bob Sobrepeña, Jeric Hechanova and Freddie Mendoza of the Manila Southwoods.
Rosales is actually hoping to come home with another victory as she leads the cast in the $900,000 Franklin American Mortgage Championship firing off Thursday (Friday in Manila) at the Vanderbilt Legends Club in Franklin, Tennessee where she looms as one of the favorites in the absence of world No. 1 Annika Sorenstam and last week’s winner Se Ri Pak.
From Tennessee, the 25-year-old Rosales will see action in $1.2 million Sybase Classic in New York before heading home to share her Georgia triumph with her countrymen.
Meanwhile, joining Rosales in the hunt for the top purse in Tennessee championship are leg winner Karen Stupples, 2003 Louise Suggs Rolex Rookie of the Year Lorena Ochoa and 2004’s leading rookie, Aree Song. LPGA stars Laura Davies, Natalie Gulbis, Lorie Kane, Mi Hyun Kim and Karrie Webb are also teeing it up in the 72-hole event.
Three-time LPGA champion Pat Hurst is returning to a course she loves, as she won the 2000 Electrolux USA Championship Hosted by Vince Gill and Amy Grant, finished tied for seventh in 2001 and was the runner-up to Annika Sorenstam in 2002. Her win in 2000 came on Mother’s Day, a special day for the mother of two.