MOVERS&SHAKEUPS


Women’s Golf Expo scheduled for Kierland


Longbow joins Troon Golf; new look at SunRidge Canyon


T


he third annual Women’s Golf Expo will take place Feb. 24 at Kierland Golf Club. That’s also the day that Scottsdale


mayor Jim Lane has proclaimed “Women’s Golf Day of Scottsdale.” The one-day event, which runs


from 10 a.m. until 2 p.m., is a major fund-raiser for the LPGA-USGA Girls Golf of Phoenix chapter. It’s somewhat fitting, since Sandy LaBauve, who founded Girls Golf of Phoenix, and Cori Matheson, its current director, are two of the hosts for the Women’s Golf Expo. “Basically, the concept is to


celebrate and connect girls and women through golf,” LaBauve said. “As well as get those girls and women who are new to the game, to come out and see what it’s all about. “So we’ll have lots of great


clinics and wonderful instruction, and this year for the first time, we’re doing a helicopter ball drop to hopefully raise additional funds.” As women’s Expo events go, this is


the premier event in Arizona. Among those sharing their insights will be Tina Tombs, a two-time LPGA instructor of the year who helped LaBauve co-found this event; a team of teachers from VISION54, considered by many to be among the top women-friendly instructional academies in the country; and award-winning yoga/fitness instructor Katherine Roberts from Yoga For Golfers. Also running full blast throughout the day will be equipment demon- strations from PING; a ball fitting from


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Titleist; a Taste of Kierland that will include food and drink specials; and, oh, yes, the helicopter ball drop, where one lucky winner will end up holding a ball worth as much as $3,000. All of this is sponsored by the


Arizona Women’s Golf Association, which also is helping to underwrite on- course opportunities that day at Kierland. To purchase the $40 ticket or to buy balls for the helicopter drop or for more information, just visit AZWGE.com. According to Matheson, none of this


would be possible without LaBauve, who founded Girls Golf of Phoenix in 1989, way ahead of what others were doing for young women at the time. “Sandy is amazing,” Matheson explained. “She had the foresight 30 years ago to found the program, which has grown internationally to involve over 80,000 girls and almost 500 sites.”


Instructor Lindy LaBauve (top photo, purple shirt and shoes) conducts a clinic at the Women’s Golf Expo at Kierland. LaBauve is the oldest daughter of noted instructors Sandy and Mike LaBauve. Also pictured here on the left is the driving force behind the event: (from left) LPGA teaching professional Peggy Gustafson, Jill Stripe from Versatile Golf, two-time LPGA teacher of the year Tina Tombs, Top 100 instructor Sandy LaBauve and LPGA-USGA Girls Golf director Cori Matheson.


Yes, it helps to have Sandy LaBauve


on your side in anything, especially golf instruction. She is an annual member of Golf Digest’s Top 100 Instructors in America, and along with her husband Mike LaBauve, headlines big-time golf schools in Scottsdale and Aspen, Colo. Hey, you could pay way, WAY more than $40 for Sandy LaBauve alone, so the Women’s Golf Expo is the real deal. “It started out as a project


for my daughter, Kristi, who was getting her degree at ASU in event planning,” LaBauve recalled, laughing. “So Tina and I got together and decided to make it happen. “But it has become so much more.


It’s now just a neat day of discovery, where women can come together and connect through the game of golf.” Added Tombs, who was national


teacher of the year in 2014 and 2018: “The vision was always there to grow women’s golf and make it a safe environment for them to learn the game. And, of course, we wanted to raise funds for girls’ golf.


www.azgolf.org


By Bill Huffman


WOMEN’S GOLF EXPO


WOMEN’S GOLF EXPO


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