Final preparations are being made for the 17th annual Kitty Michael International Invitational women's golf tournament which Bermuda will host for the second time from May 24 to May 26.

The event will be held at Belmont and Port Royal, according to tournament chairperson Valerie Nearon, who is also a member of the Bermuda team. But much could depend on whether work on redesigning three holes at Port Royal is complete by that time.

It will mark the first time the tournament has come to the Island since 1981 when Bermuda won both the gross and net divisions.

"We're looking at Belmont and Port Royal. They (Port Royal) are expected to be ready,'' said Nearon this week.

"We've booked the course with the hope that work will be completed in time.'' Two teams, Barbados and Curacao, have said they will not be playing this year, but otherwise nearly all of the regular participants will be returning.

Those confirmed include Baltusrol Club of New Jersey, Jamaica, Lyford Cay, Ocean Reef of Florida, Puerto Rico, Southeast Florida, Southwest Florida, St.

Croix, St. Thomas/St. John and Canadian club Summerlea.

Guadeloupe have yet to confirm but Nearon expects they will be in the eventual field.

"We haven't heard from them as yet, but they didn't get the information until last month,'' Nearon explained.

Bermuda have enjoyed tremendous success since participating in the inaugural tournament back in 1979 in Puerto Rico.

The event was the brainchild of Kitty Michael who died in 1992. Her daughter, Candy, was the guest speaker at last year's event when it returned to the location of its inception.

"The tournament is basically for goodwill and friendship in and around the Caribbean and North American regions,'' said Bermuda captain Judithanne Astwood who is in her fifth year as captain.

Astwood was in the Bermuda team that played in the first tournament in 1979.

The captain then was Mary Arton and the team also included Ismay Seymour (Johnson), Olga Card, Glenda Todd, Ginette Spinucci, Bea Williams and Betty Magrane.

Bermuda have been ever-present in the tournament with Todd the only member of the local team to have played in every event.

To mark the tournament's arrival in Bermuda in 1981 the Bermuda Bowl was donated by Bermuda Golf Association for the low net champions.

Bermuda won the Bowl that year and also the Balandra Cup for the low gross team. It was decided after that year that no team or individual could win more than one prize.

The Balandra Cup was put up by the Balandra Beach Resorts in 1980 when the tournament was held in Trinidad and Tobago, a country that no longer competes in the competition.

Puerto Rico are the current net champions, having won the Bermuda Bowl eight times including three straight years during the '80s while Bermuda won the gross division last year. It was their eighth triumph, having also had three successive triumphs from 1990 to 1992.

Astwood makes no secret about which prize she would like the team to aim for this year. "We're hunting down the net which seems to be so elusive,'' she said. Bermuda last won that division in 1985 in St. Croix. "We've been runners-up many times,'' Astwood added.

Astwood has had been outstanding as an individual, having taken low gross honours twice along with Sharon Pauly of Southeast Florida.

Locals Katyna Rabain and Nea Willits have each won the individual net division once -- the only locals to have done so.

The visiting teams will begin arriving on May 22, with a practice round scheduled on May 23 before competition in the three-day event begins on May 24. Organisers are also planning a cruise, a cocktail party and a banquet night.

The Bermuda team for this year's tournament is: Judithanne Astwood (capt), Glenda Todd, Bea Williams, Shirley James, Valerie Nearon, Katyna Rabain, Nea Willits, Erva Robinson, Judith Kitson and Pat Morgan.

GLENDA TODD -- played every year since the tournament's inception.