Golf Babes

The Canadian Women's Tour just wrapped up its first tournament of 2015, and the winner is Michelle Piyapattra. The tournament took place in Calgary at Glencoe Golf and Country Club, and was 36 holes in length. Piyapattra shot rounds of 71 and 69, finishing at 140 and three shots ahead of runner-up Seul-Ki Park. It's a valuable victory for Michelle and not just for the winner's check: it also gets her into the LPGA's Canadian Pacific Women's Open later this year. It's the second career win for Michelle in Canada; last year she won while still an amateur. And you might recall something else Michelle won in 2015: Inclusion in Golf.com's Most Beautiful Women in Golf feature. See our earlier post about Michelle for more on her background.

The website RantSports.com published an article, or listicle, last year titled 25 Female Athletes You Wish You Could Take on a Date . And how many of those athletes are golfers? Five of them. That's a whopping 20-percent of RantSports.com's list. Yay golf! So we're a little behind in noticing this article, but here at Golf Babes we were way ahead in noticing these five golfers. Here are the five, listed in alphabetical order: Meghan Hardin Instagram - Twitter Sharmila Nicollet Brooke Pancake (Brooke is not the least bit date-able - she's married! But the article does specify wishing you could date these athletes.) Instagram - Twitter Michelle Wie Instagram - Twitter Cheyenne Woods Instagram - Twitter

View image | gettyimages.com We told you yesterday a little bit about the movie Swing Away that is currently in production, including shooting golf scenes this week at the site of the ShopRite LPGA Classic tournament. What we left out of that first post is that LPGA Tour winner and 2-time Solheim Cupper Nicole Castrale is involved in the movie's production, too. For a movie that tells the story of a Greek-American LPGA golfer, Nicole is the perfect choice to serve as "consultant," because Nicole, after all, is a Greek-American LPGA golfer! In her role as consultant on the movie, what is Castrale actually doing? These photos, which she shared on Instagram , show us: Busy on the set of #swingaway Thanks @sirdommypants for the photos #Greece #Rhodes A photo posted by Nicole Castrale (@nicolecastrale) on May 24, 2015 at 3:41am PDT That is, I believe, young actor Viktoria Miller getting help with her golf setup from Castrale, who is there to make sure the gol

View image | gettyimages.com Emma Talley of the University of Alabama is the 2015 individual champion at the NCAA Women's Championship tournament. It's not the first huge trophy she's won. Here's a photo of her holding the U.S. Women's Amateur trophy she claimed in 2013: Talley, a Kentucky native, shot 69 in the final round, finishing at 3-under 285 (only three golfers finished under par). That was one shot better than the runners-up, Gaby Lopez of Arkansas and Leona Maguire of Duke. At the 2013 U.S. Women's Amateur Championship, Talley beat Cindy Feng in the championship match by a 2-and-1 score. Emma was a member of the U.S. Junior Ryder Cup team in 2008 and the Curtis Cup team in 2014. Talley was undefeated (3-0-1) last year in the Curtis Cup. Also in 2014, Emma played in four of the five LPGA majors (all but the Evian), making the cut in two of them. She tied for 17th place in the Women's British Open. She previously made the cut in the 201

View image | gettyimages.com There's a new golf movie called Swing Away currently filming in Greece, one the LPGA Tour itself has taken a role in supporting and promoting. And the star of it is Shannon Elizabeth. Shannon is probably best-known for the American Pie movies (personally, we loved her as the baby mama of That 70s Show idiot Kelso). How good of a golfer is Shannon? We know from her social media accounts that she's been working very hard on her game, although we haven't seen any of her swings in a couple months. Back in March she shared this short video clip: Swing away..... A video posted by SHANNON ELIZABETH - OFFICIAL (@shannonelizabeth) on Mar 16, 2015 at 3:46pm PDT We love that look of delight on Shannon's face after her instructor compliments the progress she is making. That look is one we all know well, at least all golfers who've ever tried to master a new shot or get better at a part of the game - and finally did what they were t

Congratulations to former LPGA Tour golfer Anna Rawson: As of this past Sunday, she is the holder of a Masters degree in Business Administration from a very prestigious school: Throwing it way back to last Sunday when I graduated from @columbia_biz - surreal that I was the first in my family to go to college and now I have a MBA! #dreamBig #neverstoplearning #tbt A photo posted by Anna Rawson (@annarawson) on May 21, 2015 at 9:21am PDT Anna is some kind of modern Renaissance woman: golf career, modeling career, and now she can embark on a business career. In 2014, Toronto's Globe and Mail newspaper had an article about Rawson's pursuit of her business Masters and wrote: "She sees herself combining her past life with her keen interest in business, and feels Columbia will help her do that." The article explains that Anna's interest in an MBA was spurred by all the corporate CEOs she met during golf tournament pro-ams, and suggests she might put her MBA

View image | gettyimages.com A huge "congrats!" goes out today to Melissa Reid, winner of the 2015 Turkish Airlines Ladies Open on the Ladies European Tour. And not just from Golf Babes, but from so many of her peers, both on the LET and on women's tours around the world. You only have to check Twitter to find messages of congratulations from so many of her fellow golfers. Melissa was one of the up-and-comers in European golf when she won on the LET in 2010 and twice in 2011. She played in the Solheim Cup in 2011. But her last victory - before today - was in 2012. And that win, at the Raiffeisenbank Prague Golf Masters in the Czech Republic, was an incredibly emotional one. It came just one month after the death of Reid's mother in an automobile accident during the Ladies German Open. That crushing loss was, as you can imagine, difficult to deal with. She also suffered an injury in the last tournament of 2012. The time since then wasn't without glimpses

It's the time of year when college seniors everywhere are taking their final college photos and contemplating the future. That's true for college golfers, too, especially those with options both inside and outside of golf. So when Tisha Alyn Abrea - a college golfer with options - posted the photo above, I decided to check in with her. As we told you when we wrote about Tisha previously , she's a broadcast journalism major at Cal State Fullerton who already has some significant on-the-job training: she's been getting airtime on a regional network in Southern California that programs for the Filipino-American community. She's also an NCAA winner: Tisha had a terrific Fall season late in 2014, including victory at the Rose City Collegiate. So what are her plans? Will she focus on golf or on broadcasting as she leaves the college life? "I plan on going professional," Abrea told Golf Babes. "I plan on going to Q-School this summer if I feel like I

Minjee Lee was the cover girl on the April 2015 Issue of Golf Digest Australia - almost perfect timing. Of course, as talented as Minjee is, it was only a matter of time until she grabbed her first win on the LPGA Tour. Today, the almost-19-year-old Lee did just that, closing out the victory in a Monday finish at the Kingsmill Championship . Lee held a 4-shot lead when darkness forced an end to play on Sunday. She and the other contenders returned Monday morning to finish, Lee having three holes left. She stumbled just a bit on the 16th hole, but ended with two pars and a 2-shot win over So Yeon Ryu. Minjee is about nine days shy of turning 19. This wins makes her one of the handful of golfers in LPGA history to win before turning 19 . Posted by Australian Golf Digest on Wednesday, March 18, 2015

L-R: Kelsey MacDonald, Stephanie Na, Amy Boulden, Henni Zuel, Melissa Eaton The Ladies European Tour is conducting a couple experiments this week in Turkey at the Turkish Airlines Ladies Open that could, down the road, have a big impact on how the LET (and perhaps other tours) schedules its events. One thing to know about the LET is that it's a tour with a large supply of young, attractive, hip golfers - players who are social media savvy (some of the best tweeters and Instagrammers are LET golfers) and brimming with personality. A few of them are pictured on this page. If you don't yet know the LET but love women's golf, you should definitely get to know it. But that's the problem: there is so much golf on TV that even with channels dedicated to nothing but golf there are tournaments and tours that get squeezed out. The LPGA runs into this issue, too: When every tournament across all the pro tours around the world are played on the same days, and end on Sunday,

There's a new first-time winner in professional golf, Jennifer Brumbaugh. Brumbaugh is in her second full season as a pro after graduating from San Jose State University in 2013. She won one NCAA event while at SJSU. But now she is a winner of a pro tournament, the most recent event on the SunCoast Pro Golf Tour mini-tour in Florida (formerly known as the Suncoast Series). Brumbaugh shot rounds of 73, 69 and 68 to win by one stroke . Jennifer played 13 times on the Symetra Tour in 2014, and also played on the Canadian Women's Tour in 2014 with a best showing of 18th. And she's getting into her first Symetra Tour event of 2015 this week - she's in the field at the Mission Health Wellness Classic. Pretty sweet to be coming in off her first pro victory. She can also portray Lara Croft for Halloween: And Jennifer is a winner in another way. We hereby declare her the winner of the Best Golfer's Tan Award for this photo: You can Like Jennifer on Faceboo

Congratulations to Paula Creamer, the 2015 recipient of the Dove Real Beauty Women of the Military Award. She received the award at a luncheon this week prior to the start of the Kingsmill tournament: #flashbackfriday On Wednesday I was awarded with the "Dove Real Beauty Women of the Military Award." It is given to someone who understand the importance of the Military and the women who serve. I am beyond honored and will continue to support our women and men who serve our country. Thank you again Dove for this amazing award!!!!!! ❤️🇺🇸#proudAmerican #neverforget #USA #USAstrong A photo posted by Paula Creamer Heath (@paulacreamer1) on May 15, 2015 at 2:33am PDT This is the second year of the award, which was also presented by Dove to an LPGA Tour golfer - Stacy Lewis - in 2014. The LPGA explained the award's purpose in last year's announcement about Lewis: The Dove Unilever Luncheon helps spread the message of enhancing self-esteem and true beauty inside

Alejandra Llaneza is the winner of the 2015 Self Regional Healthcare Foundation Women's Health Classic. The Symetra Tour event concluded on May 10 with Llaneza one shot better than runner-up Casey Grice. It's the first Symetra Tour win for Llaneza, who has had conditional LPGA Tour status since the 2013 season. She turned pro in 2012 after finishing her college career at the University of Arizona. But it's not a surprise that Llaneza, who hails from Mexico, is in the winner's circle. She had nine previous Top 10s in her Symetra Tour career, and in 2015 her finishes have improved with each tournament: 29th, 23rd, 19th, 8th and now 1st. Llaneza won the Women's Health Classic with a birdie on the final hole, one of three birdies (against no bogeys) she made on the back nine during the final round. Alejandra was the 5-time Junior National Champion in Mexico. While still in college she won a tournament on the Cactus Tour in 2011. In 2012, after joining the Sy

(Photo: instagram/ olleeeyy ) If you don't follow women's amateur golf, you might not know this: But there are a lot of very good young German golfers on the way up. And Olivia Cowan is definitely on the way up. She's so "up" that she just won her first professional tournament, doing so while still an amateur. The 19-year-old Cowan won the ASGI Ladies Open today in Switzerland, an event on the LET Access Series. The LETAS is the developmental circuit of the Ladies European Tour. Cowan posted scores of 71-67-69 for a final score of 9-under par and a 3-shot winning margin. Olivia is currently ranked No. 23 in the World Amateur Golf Rankings. She finished ninth in a previous LETAS start in 2015. And in amateur events Cowan has wins so far in 2015 at the Portuguese International Ladies Amateur Championship and the Spanish Ladies' Amateur Championship (which makes her Queen of Iberia, right?).

Where is Sandra Gal from? Germany. And where does the 2015 Solheim Cup take place? Germany. And that has Gal fired up to be on Team Europe. Look, she's already siccing her dog on American opponents: I don't know about you guys but in my home we are working on the competitive @SolheimCup2015 spirit already. A video posted by @thesandragal on May 4, 2015 at 6:07am PDT In her most recent diary for USA Today , Gal wrote: I couldn't be more excited for German golf fans to have a chance to see some of the best of women's golf and for me to have a reasonable prospect of making the team. It is an honor to represent Europe and Germany and an even bigger honor to be able to perform in front of my home country, fans, and friends. She added: "This year, I am going to give everything to be a part of the team." Sandra writes that she has "a reasonable chance" to make Team Europe after being passed over in 2013. I'd put it in stronger ter