It was 50 years ago that 13 feisty American women got together and founded the Ladies Professional Golf Association. It took another 29 years before Europe's females decided they could play for pay, and a little longer for them to establish themselves as a force at the highest level.

A European Women's Tour - now the Evian Tour - was established in 1979 and, while the circuit has grown in stature during its 21 years, a host of players have also enjoyed making their names, and fortunes, on the other side of the pond.

In fact, as the European Tour developed the talents of its finest women professionals, slowly but surely, a cross-Atlantic invasion gathered momentum. Heading the battalion was Britain's Laura Davies.

Back in 1987, Davies wasn't even a member of the LPGA Tour when she started the revolution by snatching victory in the US Open and launched a spectacular career that, to date, has gleaned $5m in earnings, 60 wins world-wide, a lengthy reign as world number one and global popularity.

Davies, with her long-hitting, carefree attitude and famed love of gambling, is a huge hit with the fans and over many years of yo-yoing back and forth across the Atlantic to satisfy her loyalty and desire to play in Europe, she has collected 20 LPGA titles and topped the money list in 1994.

The US has been good to her, and Davies' ultimate dream is to head the European and LPGA Order of Merits in the same season. In 15 years in Europe, she has been number one five times and never a season has passed without her entering the winner's circle at least once.

Alison Nicholas, the 1997 US Open Champion, Trish Johnson, Helen Dobson, Kathryn Marshall, Caroline McMillan (Pierce) and Janice Moodie are other Britons to have won on the LPGA Tour.

But if the Brits came first, then the Swedes rapidly followed in their wake. After Davies 1987 win, Liselotte Neumann made it back-to-back wins for Europe by taking the 1988 US Open and Annika Sorenstam went even better with back-to-back wins for herself in the same event in 1995 and 1996. Now, the Swedish list of winners also includes Annika's sister, Charlotta, Helen Alfredsson, Catrin Nilsmark, Sophie Gustafson and Maria Hjorth.

This year, the LPGA boasted more than 40 tournaments, the schedule ran from January to December and prize money totalled more than $39m. Meanwhile, the 2000 Evian Tour has 16 ranking events and a record #3.5m in prize money.

And next year, Tim Howland, chief executive of the Evian Tour, is confident that he can increase the number to 20-plus, partly thanks to a trend towards co-sanctioned tournaments. New Zealand, Australia, South Africa, and perhaps Asia and the Middle East, are likely to figure.

This year, the TSN World Cup of Golf added another dimension, while hopes are high that the flagship event, the Weetabix British Open, that had prize money of #730,000 at Royal Birkdale this year, will soon gain ''major'' status.

Another massive breakthrough came at the Evian Masters in France in June, a tournament that aims to become the women's Augusta equivalent. It was the first women's #1m event to be staged anywhere in the world and, for the first time, was co-sanctioned by the LPGA. As a result, the US Open purse was subsequently shoved up to a women's record of $2.75m.

For the eight surviving founder members of the LPGA, the growth internationally of the tour must be jaw-dropping.

Back in 1950, who would have thought that such a small band of women could sow the seeds for a circuit that now tours the globe - Australia, Japan, Britain, France, Malaysia - and include a list of members from all over it?

And they would certainly never have envisaged a Solheim Cup, or the notion that 12 players from a far distant continent could take on 12 mighty Americans. And, who knows, soon there may be a President's Cup-type event (America versus the rest of the world except Europe) for women.

After all, the LPGA's and world number one, Karrie Webb, is from Australia, while the past two leading rookies, Se Ri Pak and Mi Hyun Kim, both came from South Korea.

Japanese players have also made a huge contribution to women's golf, with a growing circuit and a greater presence on the LPGA. In 1987, the legendary Ayako Okamoto finished top of the LPGA Order of Merit.

Nowadays, as the women's game goes from strength to strength, there are professional tours popping up here, there and everywhere. The prize funds continue to increase, more sponsors are attracted and there is a bigger push into the media spotlight.

What began as a dream for a small band of all-American women has now become a reality for a truly world-wide mix of nationalities and personalities.