Golf Babes

I have no idea who this is. But she's holding a golf club, and that's good enough for me.

2007 was a big year for Cristie - she got married, and she won her first major championship (the U.S. Women's Open).

So, the next "Big Break" series on the Golf Channel will feature an all-female cast - our favorite kind - and was filmed in Kaanapali, Hawaii. Some of the faces of the cast members are familiar to Golf Babes readers, others are newcomers. Here are some of the cast members from "Big Break: Kaanapali": Cirbie Sheppard This image is courtesy of Cirbie, from a photo shoot she did for SakiPhotography.com. I'm sure we'll be seeing more of Cirbie on Golf Babes in the future. (Much more - including more pics - about Cirbie here .) Tina Miller Tina! We're looking forward to watching one of our favorites on "Big Break: Kaanapali." This image is courtesy of Play Golf Designs . Courtney Erdman Courtney is not only a fine golfer, she's patriotic. Kim, Sam and Liz From left to right, Kim Welch, Samantha Head and Elizabeth Stuart. These are their Futures Tour mugshots. (Side note: Samantha's twin sister, Johanna Head, is on the LPGA Tour, and Sama

I've been remiss in not posting about Anna Rawson over the past few weeks. So above is a magazine scan from one of Anna's recent fashion shoots, although which magazine I'm unsure. As for why I've been remiss: Because Anna deserves congratulations for her great showing at LPGA Q-School. Alas, she didn't achieve fully exempt status, finishing one spot outside the Top 17 cutoff. But as the highest-ranking player coming out of Q-School with conditional status - and combined with the sponsor exemptions that Anna should be able to get - she should be able to play a pretty good schedule on the LPGA in 2008.

The Web site SpyOnVegas.com chronicles the Las Vegas nightlife. And here they catch the lovely Nisha Sadekar at the 944 Magazine Christmas party recently held in the Presidential Suite atop the Rio. Hey, Nisha works very hard building her Play Golf Designs empire, she deserves to hit a few parties, too. Next time I'm in Vegas, Nisha, you and I are hitting the dancefloor. I can do the Robot, and ... um ... the chicken dance. That's about it. So ... yeah.

Colleges across America are on their holiday breaks at the moment, and NCAA golf is also on break, but a longer one: the break between the Fall and Spring seasons. So we won't see Sydnee Michaels, a sophomore on the UCLA team, back in tournament play until collegiate Spring golf season begins. Check out Sydnee's bio page on the UCLA athletics Web site.

Tiffany Tavee turned pro in 2006, after graduating from Arizona State University, but 2007 was her first full professional season. Her 2007 campaign on the Futures Tour got off to a slow start, but Tiffany built up steam as the season continued and had several strong finishes at the end of the year - including her best-yet, a runner-up at the Futures Tour USI Championship in Concord, N.H. Expect to see Tiffany building on that good finish and having a terrific 2008 season. A native of Arizona, Tiffany won the 2002 Arizona high school championship. In four years at Arizona State, she had nine Top 10 collegiate finishes and was named to numerous all-conference and All-America teams, and earned multiple academic awards. Tiffany Tavee's Futures Tour profile

We agree, In-Kyung: You rock! The photo above shows In-Kyung - or IK Kim, as she is often called - at the 2007 Lexus Cup, where she played for Team Asia in the Asians' victory over Team International. The 5-foot-3 Kim won the U.S. Girls Junior Amateur Championship in 2005, then turned pro at the end of 2007. This year was her rookie year on the LPGA Tour ( profile ), and it was a very good one. She had four Top 10 finishes, including a second at the Wegman's LPGA, and also tied the all-time LPGA 9-hole scoring record with a 27 during the Jamie Farr Owens Corning Classic.

It's been a good week for LPGA Tour up-and-comer Amy Hung. Amy was part of Team Asia at the Lexus Cup, a Team Asia that crushed the International squad in the Ryder Cup-style competition that ended today. Earlier in the week, it was announced that Amy has signed on as spokesperson for the Survivor Celebration and Marathon of Miracles Foundation. The MOM Foundation and its Survivor Celebration campaign are dedicated to raising funds and awareness in the fight against breast cancer. Amy was also recently features in AAGolf magazine, and the article included a mention of Golf Babes (thanks!).

Australian golfer Sarah Kemp is having an eventful week. She recently qualified for the LPGA Tour in 2008 by finishing in the Top 17 at the 2007 LPGA Qualifying Tournament. A couple days later, she launched her Web site, which you can visit at www.sarahkemp.com.au . And today - Dec. 7 - is Sarah's 22nd birthday. Happy birthday Kempy! The elegant pose above is from a print ad that Sarah did for Citizen Eco-Drive watches. More Sarah Kemp pics

Here are two photos from the 2008 Sophie Sandolo Calendar. Sophie worked once again this year with photographer Paolo Ranzani, and with him forged another artistic, adventurous calendar. Sophie says that in this calendar, she wanted to play on her belief that golf should be part of the Olympics, so her poses evoke Olympic sports. The calendar will begin shipping on Dec. 15, and can be ordered from Sophie's Web site . On the right-hand side of the page, look for the "Calendar 2008" headline, and just below that the "Buy Now" headline. Click on a preferred method of payment to purchase. To see more of Sophie (and we mean that literally - visit Golf Spelled Backwards . (Not safe for work!)

A couple more shots from the Golf Digest World Ladies Calendar. Above is Tina Miller, below is Nikki Garrett. This calendar is issued annually by Golf Digest Japan and is available only through that magazine ... unless you keep a close eye on eBay.

Ashley Prange is the champion of "Big Break: Hawaii," and - hooray! - she'll be back in another Golf Channel series this month. A new season of "Golf With Style: Global Challenge," hosted by Stina Sternberg , premieres Dec. 4, and Ashley appears in at least two episodes. Those episodes are the ones from Mission Hills, China, which debuts on Dec. 11; and the one filmed in Australia, which debuts Dec. 18.

Congratulations to the LPGA's Class of 2007, the 17 golfers who made it through the final stage of Q-School to earn their tour cards for 2008. Those grads include Louise Friberg, an LET veteran: Su A Kim, who had non-exempt status on the LPGA in 2007: Check the LPGA results for the full list of Top 17 who made it.

The final stage of the LPGA Tour Qualifying Tournament (a k a Q-School) got is under way. The first round leaders are Jane Park (above) at 7-under and Kelli Kuehne (below) at 5-under.

We introduced you to Kim Kouwanbunpat just a few weeks ago, but it's never too early for another Kim pic! The photo above is from a profile of Kim that appears in the November issue of West Coast Golfer magazine. (You'll need to register to read the article, but registration is free and easy.) Bonus pic: Below, also from the West Coast Golfer article, is Kim with her good friend Nisha Sadeker, with whom she works at Play Golf Designs .

Elin Nordegren is married to ... um ... what's his name? Tiger something. She's already won that sweepstakes. Now she's been nominated for inclusion on AskMen.com's "Top 99 Most Desirable Women of 2008" rankings. And you can cast as many votes as you want for Elin (you know Tiger's sitting in front of his computer right now clicking away - he doesn't like to lose at anything!). Go to askmen.com/specials/2008_top_99/index_vote.html and find Elin in the Models section. Then rate her from 1 to 10 (10 being the "most desirable," natch). You can vote as many times as you like. The final results will be revealed on AskMen.com on Jan. 31, 2008.

Jodi Ewart is a sophomore on the University of New Mexico women's golf team. Jodi's freshman season (2006-07) was one of the best in school history. She set a school record for scoring average; won the Mountain West Conference championship tournament and had six other Top 10 finishes; was named conference Freshman of the Year; MWC co-Player of the Year; and was named to All-America teams by the National Golf Coaches Association of America and by Golfweek magazine. A psychology major, Jodi is from England and has won plenty of big amateur tournaments in the UK. Among those titles are wins at the Girls Home Internationals (twice); the Ladies Home Internationals and the England Northern Ladies Championship; and her biggest win to date, the 2007 English Women's Strokeplay Championship. While Jodi continues her career at New Mexico as one of the top collegiate golfers in America, expect to see more of her in international competition, too. She should be a lock for the Great Bri

Marie-Josee Rouleau is a native of Montreal who won numerous amateur tournaments in Canada (including the 1992 Canadian Ladies Amateur Championship) before turning pro in 1994. Since then Rouleau has been a member of both the LPGA Tour and Ladies European Tour, while also playing on the Futures Tour and CN Canadian Women's Tour. Along the way, Marie-Josee won Rookie of the Year honors on the LET in 1997, led the Canadian Women's Tour in earnings two seasons, and posted six wins on the Canadian Women's Tour. The photo to the left is the mugshot used by the Futures Tour and LET on each tour's profile page for Rouleau. Below is a photo from a recent shoot Rouleau did for Play Golf Designs . As regular readers of Golf Babes know, Play Golf Designs is a Las Vegas-based golf event management company whose roster of professional golfers includes many, well, golf babes. You can learn more about Play Golf Designs (and how you can play golf with Marie-Josee, or schedule her to pl

Here's the lovely and talented Anna Rawson on the red carpet prior to the 2007 ESPYs in Hollywood. This is a big time for Anna. She played on the Ladies European Tour in 2007, but is chasing her LPGA Tour card for 2008. Anna will be playing the final-stage LPGA qualifier beginning Nov. 28, and we certainly wish her many birdies. Our friends over at oobgolf recently conducted an interview with Ms. Rawson. You can read it here .

Golfer/model/bon vivant Blair O'Neal has launched her new Web site, and it's a good one. Some cool tech tricks, as well as some good info about Blair, and from her (a blog). Along with plenty of pics, of course. Check it out at blaironeal.com

Hawaii native Bridget Dwyer was a contestant on "The Big Break VI: Trump National." She's been playing the Futures Tour the last couple years - more on her background here .

My site stats show tons of people searching lately for "Paula Creamer bikini." What's up with that? As far as I can tell, Paula has not done any bikini shoots. Sorry guys. But hey, we can always hope, right? ( Update : If you were hoping, you're now in luck. You can see Paula in a bikini here and here .) But Paula's 2008 calendar is now for sale. The calendar is done for Golf Digest Japan and is only for sale through GDJ's Web site (although we have spotted it on eBay once or twice, too). Not being able to read Japanese, I can't determine whether the calendar can even be purchased by anyone outside of Japan. But if you want to try, the Golf Digest Japan Paula Creamer 2008 Calendar page is here .

Perry Swenson graduated from the University of Texas with a degree in finance, turned pro and has played the Futures Tour for the past couple seasons. Her best finish to date is a tie for fourth.

Momoko Ueda is a player to watch, and we might just get to see more of her next year after she won the LPGA Mizuno Classic . Ueda is a member of the Japan LPGA. She's just 21 years old, but now that she's won an LPGA tournament, she gains fully exempt status on the U.S. tour for 2008.

To the right is a thumbnail of the cover of the 2008 Golf Digest World Ladies Calendar. This is a calendar that is produced yearly by Golf Digest Japan and is, unfortunately, available only in Japan. Well, perhaps some other parts of the Far East, too, but not in the U.S. or Europe. The golfers featured in the 2008 calendar are Brandi Jackson, Nikki Garrett, Anna Rawson and Tina Miller. Below is a great shot of Tina that is, alas, obscured by a watermark, but gives you an idea of the classy way these four beautiful women are pictured in the calendar: Thumbnails of the other shots from the calendar can be viewed on the Golf Digest Japan site . And if you can read Japanese, you might be able to use the order page.

Back by popular demand, it's Sydnee Michaels. Sydnee grew up on the golf courses and beaches of Southern California, so it's no surprise she's at home in a place like Hawaii. Michaels, a sophomore on the UCLA women's golf team, was in the islands with the team to take part in the Kent Youel Invitational tournament, hosted by the University of Hawaii. UCLA won the tournament , and Sydnee finished 10th in the individual standings.

Stefanie Michl, from Austria, is another golfer who recently earned her tour card for 2008 at the Ladies European Tour final-stage Q-School tournament in Italy. Michl finished tied for fourth at the tournament. Stefanie finished eighth on the Telia Tour Order of Merit in 2006, and played most of 2007 on the LET.

This screen capture of Dana Lacey is from The Golf Channel's Web site. Why are featuring Dana today? Because she won the Ladies European Tour's final qualifying tournament in Italy, earning her playing card for the 2008 LET season. Congratulations to Dana.

That's Vera Shimanskaya, who won an Olympic gold medal in rhythmic gymnastics at the 2000 Summer Games in Sydney. But now she's a golf professional. Shimanskaya, from Russia, turned pro prior to the Ladies European Tour Pre-Qualifying School last week in Italy. Now 26 years old, she's only been playing golf since age 23. According to this article on the LET Web site, Shimanskaya turned pro with a handicap of 3, which means she doesn't have much chance of winning any money at the moment. But a 3-handicap is very impressive for anyone, much less for a golfer who's only been playing for three years.

Paula Creamer finished second in a tournament on the Japanese LPGA tour that finished today. Above is how she looked the last time she was in Japan, which happened to be around the time of her 21st birthday. Paula dressed up Japanese-style for the party.

Here are (from left) Jenna Daniels , Natalie Gulbis and our friend Tina Miller at the after party/pro-am party following Peter Jacobsen's SaveMart Shootout in Fresno, Calif. Tina points out, "Natalie and I are the same height, except when she wears 10-inch heels." (Thanks to Tina for the photo)

This photo appears on Golf Babes courtesy of Fairways , a French golf and lifestyle magazine. Fairways features some of its more comely readers as "golfing girls next door" in the magazine and on its Web site . Check the Portfolio section of that Web site for more pics. Photo © Fairways magazine; may not be reproduced without permission Hat tip to one of my favorite golf babes, The Golf Girl , for pointing out Fairways .

Kim Kouwabunpat works with our friend Nisha Sadekar and Play Golf Designs . If you're heading to Las Vegas and would like to play golf with Kim, check the PGD Web site and you might be able to set up a round. As we've mentioned before, PGD can manage your golf event or provide female touring professionals to lead clinics or play in a corporate outing. All the PGD pros are smart, funny and gorgeous - and they can all kick your butt on the golf course. Can't beat 'em, join 'em. That's my motto. Speaking of smart, Kim K. was a psychology major at the University of Stanford, where she twice was an All-Pac 10 selection and was the most valuable player on the 2003-04 Stanford women's golf team. Since turning pro in 2004 following graduation, Kim has played on the Futures Tour, Ladies Asian Golf Tour, Cactus Tour and the CN Canadian Women's Tour.

Left to right, Paula Creamer, Erica Blasberg and Natalie Gulbis.

Another shot of Cristie Kerr from the Oscar night partygoing ... was that earlier this year, or last year? I forget. It's been an unusual year for Cristie. Not up to her recent standards in many respects - she's had only four Top 10 finishes in 18 starts, has three missed cut. Yet because of her U.S. Women's Open victory - her first major - it feels like it's been a bigger year than it really has.

Great finish for Amy Hung at the Navistar LPGA Classic. She closed with a 63, her personal best on the LPGA by two strokes, and climbed from well-back up to sixth place. That continues her best year on the LPGA so far in her career, moving Amy up to 42nd on the money list.