The LPGA Playoffs at The ADT will begin in 2006. Also known as the ADT Championship, the event will end a season-long run towards the LPGA's version of THE TOUR Championship. The winner of the event will receive $1 million, the highest first-place prize in the history of women's golf. The event will continue to take place at it present home, the Trump International Golf Club in West Palm Beach. LPGA stands for Ladies Professional Golf Association. ... 2006 (MMVI) is a common year starting on Sunday of the Gregorian calendar. ... THE TOUR Championship (the capitalisation is official) is the final event of golfs PGA Tour season. ... Golfer teeing off at the start of a hole Golf is a game where individual players or teams hit a ball into a hole using various clubs. ... West Palm Beach is a city located in Palm Beach County, Florida. ...

Former LPGA commissioner Ty Votaw announced the system on June 7, 2005. The new LPGA commissioner, Carolyn Bivens, announced how the Playoffs would take place on November 16, 2005. It will be the first time golf has ever used a postseason of any kind on any tour. June 7 is the 158th day of the year in the Gregorian calendar (159th in leap years), with 207 days remaining. ... 2005 (MMV) is a common year starting on Saturday of the Gregorian calendar. ... November 16 is the 320th day of the year (321st in leap years) in the Gregorian Calendar, with 45 days remaining. ...

How the competitors will be selected

The 2006 LPGA campaign will be split into two halves. The first half will start with the SBS Open at Turtle Bay and end with the Jamie Farr Owens Corning Classic. The second half will begin with the Evian Masters and end with The Mitchell Company LPGA Tournament of Champions, just a week before the Playoffs. The Top 15 points scorers and one wild card from each half will qualify for the Playoffs, making for a total of 32 players who will take part in the season-ending event. The Evian Masters is a womens professional golf tournament which is played in France each July. ...

Most of the events on the schedule will be points events, where the Top 20 will be awarded points. However, all winners of the LPGA's majors and five limited field events, such as the HSBC Women's World Match Play Championship, will automatically qualify for the Playoffs. Womens golf has evolved a set of major tournaments which parallels that in mens golf, but the womens system is younger and has been less stable that the mens. ... The HSBC Womens World Match Play Championship is an LPGA Tour golf tournament which will be played for the first time on 30 June to 3 July 2005 at Hamilton Farm Golf Club in Gladstone, New Jersey. ...

Once the first half ends, and the first 16 players have been awarded spots in the Playoffs, the point totals from the first half will be wiped out, and the second half will begin with a fresh scoresheet, meaning points don't carry over from half-to-half.

More details on selecting competitors for the Playoffs can be found here: [1]

How The Playoffs at The ADT will work

Once the 32 competitors are selected, then the Playoffs will begin.

There will be two cuts: one after 36 holes, and one after 54 holes. The cut after 36 will reduce the field from 32 players to 16. The 54-hole cut will leave just 8 competitors remaining. If there are any ties for 16th after the second round, or 8th after the third round, then sudden-death playoffs will be used to determine who makes it to the next day.

When there are just 8 players left, they'll be paired into four groups of two. All the players will have their scores wiped out, very much ensuring that it's still anyone's tournament to win.

The winner of the event will be declared the season champion.

Controversy surrounding $1 million prize

Most players support the idea of a playoff system, but for them, the $1 million prize might be too much to hand out. Not surprisingly, the number one women's golfer in the world, Annika Sorenstam, is one of them. Many point out that a player who had a great year, like Sorenstam did in 2005, when she won 10 times, could miss the cut after round three, and not only lose the tournament, but also the money title to someone not even in the list's Top 10 at the event's start. Annika Sörenstam is a professional golfer from Sweden. ... 2005 (MMV) is a common year starting on Saturday of the Gregorian calendar. ...

Sorenstam, as well as others, have suggested that only half the prize count toward the money list, while the other half is given as a bonus, and not counted on the money list. The LPGA will consider this during the off-season. [2]

External links

• 2006 LPGA schedule — Breakdown of how events will work towards the Playoffs are noted by a key. Adobe Reader required to view.