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Innisbrook has snagged the Symetra Tour's inaugural IOA Golf Classic, making the Palm Harbor resort the only one in the country to host the PGA Tour, Symetra and Legends Tour.
Symetra, which is the Ladies Professional Golf Association's official developmental tour, hasn't had a tournament in the Tampa Bay area since 1997. It has 15 tournaments this year, including the Aug. 9-11 event at Innisbrook in Palm Harbor.
The only other Symetra tournaments in Florida were earlier in the year at Sarasota's Sara Bay Country Club and Winter Haven's Lake Region Yacht & Country Club.
Of the estimated 16,000 golf courses in the nation, Innisbrook is among only 80 courses that host tournaments on the PGA Tour, LPGA or Symetra Tour, says a Symetra spokesman.
Nearly 145 women golfers will compete on the 54-hole Island Course — ranked among the top 50 courses in the nation by Golf Digest — for a $100,000 purse. Symetra's top 10 money winners get a chance at stardom in the LPGA.
Symetra events have an estimated economic impact of as much as $600,000 in the cities or communities where they're held, mostly from hotel room rentals and food and beverage sales, the Symetra spokesman says.
Innisbrook now hosts three of the six professional tours but is missing the Champions Tour, Web.com Tour and LPGA. Those tours typically don't play at the same courses that hold events on their brother/sister tours.
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