Richdale - Shopping With The LPGA At Safeway

By Lisa D. Mickey
Communications Director
DuramedA FUTUREDS Tour

When SAMANTHA RICHDALE of Kelowna, BC looks down the line of the practice tee this week at the LPGA's event outside Portland, Ore., this time, it will be different. This time, she won't feel like an inexperienced young pro who hasn't earned her stripes, or doesn't know how to win, or doesn't belong alongside the best women professionals in the world.

Playing on a sponsor's exemption at the LPGA's Safeway Classic, Richdale, a three-time winner on the Duramed FUTURES Tour and an LPGA Tour rookie, will spend the week testing what she has learned in three and a half seasons on the LPGA's developmental tour.

And this week's tournament exemption will give her a taste of the full LPGA playing status she will earn with a top-five finish on the money list following next week's final Duramed FUTURES Tour tournament, the ILOVENY Championship in Albany, N.Y. She is in position to make that happen. And she is in a completely different place in her career than she was only a year ago when she got into the field at the 2008 CN Canadian Women's Open.

"Last year, I was really nervous in my practice round and I was out there on the range skulling my shots," said Richdale, 25, of Kelowna, British Columbia. "I looked around and everything was roped off, there was security and all of these players were just striping it. It felt like everybody was watching and I just didn't think I belonged out there."

That was how she felt then, but that was not how she played. Richdale steadied her shaking hands and pounding heart and made the cut in her first LPGA appearance. Later in 2008, she earned her first professional win on the Duramed FUTURES Tour in Gettysburg, Pa. That was a milestone for which she had been anxiously awaiting.

The Canadian won again this spring in Lafayette, La., and added a third timely win last week in Harrisburg, Pa., pushing her into the No. 4 spot on the Tour's season money list - in line to earn full playing privileges on the 2010 LPGA Tour.

But it's no coincidence that things have finally started falling into place for Richdale. She began working with swing coach Craig Harmon in August 2007. Harmon taught her how and what to practice. In May 2008, she began working with Tour caddie Paul Maggiore, and in July 2008, she landed a sponsorship with PRASCO, a pharmaceutical company in Ohio, with whom she played in the pro-am at the Tour's tournament in Mason, Ohio. The last part of the winning formula was a new working relationship with sports psychologist Dr. Gio Valiante.

"I put all the pieces in place and good things started happening," said Richdale. "In a way, it feels like it's taken forever because it's my fourth year out here. It gets hard to tell people that. Sometimes they ask, 'How long are you going to give it?' But at least now, I think I'm finally on the right track."

With eight top-10 finishes in 16 tournaments this season and a career-best stroke average of 71.72, Richdale now understands more about the process of her young professional career. A chemistry major at Illinois State University and a former part-time employee of Safeway grocery store, where her mother has worked for 25 years, this soft-spoken Japanese-Canadian has always understood hard work.

And this week, recognizing her personal connection with their brand and their tournament, the LPGA's Safeway Classic is giving Richdale a chance to tee it up at the Ghost Course at Pumpkin Ridge in North Plains, Ore. It will be a chance for her to go back to the LPGA and measure herself one year later. And it also will be a prelude to the 2010 LPGA tournament season for the Canadian.

"I turned pro in 2006 and I knew that's what I wanted to do, but I didn't think I'd struggle as hard as I did," said the daughter of a Royal Canadian Mounted Police officer. "It was an eye opener because I watched players like SONG-HEE KIM come here at age 17 and win five times. It made me ask, 'Why am I not that good?'

"But the truth is, I was not ready for the LPGA in 2006 and 2007," Richdale added. "You learn that everybody has their own time line. I guess as long as you get there, it doesn't matter how long it takes. Now, I feel like I'm at the point where I deserve to be on the LPGA."

Richdale will spend this off-week for the Duramed FUTURES Tour playing with the LPGA's best. Next week, she will return for the developmental tour's annual "graduation" at the ILOVENY Championship in Albany, N.Y. - where 10 LPGA cards for next season are awarded to the top-10 season money winners. For 10 players, it is a rite of passage, and for Richdale, it's a week that has been on her mind for some time.

"I definitely want to be on that stage in Albany as a top-five player this year," she said. "I think it's time."