Karen Stupples has seen a lot and done a lot over the course of her 13 years as a professional golfer. And what she sees of the 2012 LPGA Tour schedule has the normally upbeat Stupples especially enthusiastic about where the LPGA is headed.

A two-time winner on the LPGA Tour and the 2004 Weetabix Women’s British Open champion, Stupples says the new schedule, which features 27 official events, is another sign the tour is continuing the turnaround that began two years ago under commissioner Mike Whan.

“When you think of where we were two years ago to where we are now, it’s a bit of a turnaround, isn’t it?” she asks. “It’s pretty impressive, actually. I think Mike’s a pretty impressive kind of guy. He’s very ‘Go get ‘em’ and very enthusiastic about the whole thing and I think that’s really helped.”

The 37-year old from Deal played college golf at Florida State and represented Great Britain twice in the Curtis Cup before turning professional in the summer of 1998 at the relatively late age of 25.

In 1999, her rookie season, Stupples and her peers played in 40 official events for some $32 million. This year there will be 25 official events for $47 million in purses. There are five new or returning events on the schedule. Two of them, in Toledo, Ohio and Williamsburg, Virginia are being played in cities that have hosted the LPGA in years past and are now returning to the fold.

“I think for whatever reason (tournament officials in Toledo and Williamsburg) were turned off,” Stupples says, “whether it was financial or personalities. King’s Mill (in Williamsburg) had a change of ownership. Toledo I think was struggling a little bit financially.”

“I both think both places still wanted to have the LPGA) but I think the economy was struggling.”

“The LPGA is really exciting right now. We’ve got some young, fresh players coming in that add a lot of excitement to the game. It’s a good product as well and I think that speaks to why you see these improvements.”

Through the years some have expressed concern, and a degree of impatience, with the fact that the LPGA players compete for much smaller purses than their male counterparts on the PGA Tour.

But as Stupples prepares to set out for another year on tour, with her husband/caddy and four-and-a-half-year old son Logan in tow, she says recent have events have left LPGA players more appreciative of the opportunities they do enjoy.

“What has happened for us is we’ve all learned a hard and valuable lesson over these last few years,” she says. “You can’t just expect massive purses and everything to come around. I think all of us are just happy for some playing opportunities.”

“It made us much more humble as a group of players and I think that’s probably a very good thing.”