So Long, Telia Tour

The Telia Tour - the Sweden-based women's tour that is an official feeder to the Ladies European Tour - is history. But don't worry, women's golf fans, it's just changing its name. With a new title sponsor, the Telia Tour is now the SAS Masters Tour.

From the SAS Masters Tour site, a few factoids:

• 
  
• The Tour has 12 tournaments, the first in May, the last in October.
  
• A Minimum of 300,000 SEK* in prize money at each event. The Tour points out this is "a big increase from last year where only a few tournaments had this amount in prize money."
  
• The top two finishers on the SAS Order of Merit move up to the LET, and the rest of the Top 10 move directly into the final stage of the LET Q-School.
  
• The Top 25 on the Order of Merit get into the field at the LET Göteborg Masters, Sept. 18-21.
  

Last year's Top 5 on the Order of Merit (which is based on points, not money) was:

1. Marianne Skarpnord
   
2. Caroline Hedwall
   
3. Florence Lüscher
   
4. Julie Tvede
   
5. Eva Bjärvall

Skarpnord is joined by Lüscher on the LET in 2008 because Hedwall decided to play collegiately (at Oklahoma State) instead. (Her sister, Jacqueline, will be playing collegiately at LSU next season). Tvede is also on the LET this year, getting in through Q-School.

And remember: If you're ever in Sweden and head to an SAS Masters Tour tournament, and some cheeky Swede says to you, "Hey, wanna try something delicious, have some lutefisk," don't do it!

*SEK stands for Swedish Krona. SEK 300,000 converts to roughly USD 50,000.