Dakoda Dowd, Ginn Clubs Open Make Their Professional Debuts

Here's your chance to witness not just the birth of a new golf tournament but also the professional emergence of what just might be the next great female golfer. And pay tribute to someone living with breast cancer at the same time.

The inaugural Ginn Clubs & Resorts Open is set to tee off at the Reunion Resort & Club near Orlando. Although top female golfers such as Annika Sorenstam and Paula Creamer will vie for the trophy, many eyes will be on 12-year-old Dakoda Dowd viewed by many as the next female golfing phenom. Playing in her first professional tournament, Dowd has already won more than 185 junior tournaments.

However, the one victory she'd like to pull off -- rescuing her mother from cancer -- appears unattainable. The cancer has spread to her mother's liver and bones. Seeing her daughter compete in an LPGA event is one of her mother's last wishes -- therefore the LPGA granted an exemption allowing the underage but exceptionally talented younger Dowd to compete. The first Ginn Clubs & Resorts Open is Apr. 27-30 in Reunion, Florida.