LPGA Opens Entries for October 14-16 Senior LPGA Championship
- Details
- Category: Inside Golf
- Published: 2019-07-19
By THE LPGA
DAYTONA BEACH, Florida — The LPGA announced the launch of entries for the third annual Senior LPGA Championship presented by Old National Bank, which will be contested from October 14-16, 2019 on the Pete Dye Course at French Lick Resort in Indiana.
A field of 78 current and past LPGA stars will vie for the title, and a winner’s check for $100,000 from a total purse of $650,000, over 54 holes in the second senior major championship of the 2019 season. The event will be televised live on Golf Channel from 3-6 p.m. ET during the three competition days.
"The Senior LPGA Championship is a landmark event for us here at the LPGA. It was the first senior major championship for women and it provides a much bigger platform to celebrate the legends of the game," said LPGA commissioner Mike Whan. "When the inaugural event was held in 2017 on such a great stage in French Lick, I saw for myself how special it was. I look forward to great gallery support again this year, as well as the unique Monday-to-Wednesday broadcast on Golf Channel for our fans across the country."
Englishwoman Trish Johnson was the wire-to-wire winner of the inaugural Senior LPGA Championship in 2017 and her compatriot, World Golf Hall of Fame member Laura Davies, followed suit last year with a commanding four-stroke victory over Swede Helen Alfredsson and Italy’s Silvia Cavalleri. It was the second senior women’s major title of the 2018 season for Davies, who had stormed to a 10-shot win over fellow Hall of Famer Juli Inkster in the inaugural U.S. Senior Women’s Open conducted by the USGA in July.
"I am really looking forward to defending my Senior LPGA Championship title," Davies said. "Until last year, French Lick was a golf course that I never thought I could win on. I'd always played okay around there, but I'd never strung three good rounds together. It's the sort of course where you've got to be careful, but you've got to be brave as well, because you'll make bogeys if you’re trying to play it safe. So to win the tournament last year was very, very special for me."
The 2019 Senior LPGA Championship will be open to female professionals aged 45 and older as of Monday, October 14, this year.
Legends Tour event winners from the previous three calendar years and this season are exempt into the field, which includes 2019 U.S. Senior Women's Open champion Alfredsson, Davies, Johnson, Inkster, Liselotte Neumann and Lorie Kane.
"We are so appreciative of the opportunity to host these great legends of the game," said Dave Harner, Director of Golf at French Lick Resort. "We are always looking for ways to make this tournament even more fun for our players, sponsors, spectators, and especially the Riley (Children's Hospital) Kids, and this year will be no exception. We hope people who love the game will come and support this great cause."
The full Senior LPGA Championship field will be determined as follows:
- Four players who are sponsor invites as determined by the sponsor, including the top finisher at the 2018 Senior LPGA Championship not otherwise qualified, and the top finisher at the 2019 U.S. Senior Women's Open not otherwise qualified. Ties will be determined by the sponsor
- Past winners of the Senior LPGA Championship
- Members of the LPGA and/or World Golf Halls of Fame
- The top 15 finishers and ties at the previous year's (2018) Senior LPGA Championship
- The top 10 and ties at the 2019 Senior LPGA Championship
- Winners of the Senior Division at the 2018 and 2019 T&CP National Championships
- Winners of the Senior LPGA Championship in the previous three years (beginning with the 2018 Senior LPGA Championship)
- The top eight finishers and ties in the Senior Division at the 2019 T&CP National Championship
- Players who finish in positions 1-10 (and ties) in the Championship Division at the 2019 T&CP National Championship
- Winners of Legends Tour events in the previous three calendar years (2016, 2017 and 2018) and during the current calendar year (2019) [inclusive of official and unofficial events with a minimum of 36 holes of tournament play completed]
- The top 40 players on the current-year Legends Tour Performance Points List as of the commitment deadline
- Winners of an official LPGA Tour event in the previous 10 years
- Past winners of an LPGA major championship
- The balance of the field will be filled by players ranked in the order of their position on the official LPGA Career Money list as of the commitment deadline
Entries for the 2019 Senior LPGA Championship will close on September 4, 2019.
Practice rounds will begin on October 10 and the tournament will again benefit Riley Children's Foundation, which is connected to Riley Children's Hospital, the premier children's hospital in the region.
The Legends Tour, the official senior tour of the LPGA, has a strong relationship with French Lick Resort and the Pete Dye Course. From 2013-2016, the course hosted the Legends Championship with Johnson (2016), Inkster (2015), Laurie Rinker (2014) and Kane (2013) emerging as winners.
French Lick Resort is also host to the Symetra Tour's Donald Ross Classic at French Lick Resort, which will be played this week (from July 11-13) on The Donald Ross Course. The 54-hole tournament will have a purse of $225,000. Erynne Lee, a rookie on the 2018 LPGA Tour, won the inaugural Donald Ross Classic in 2017 and Stephanie Kono triumphed last year to claim her first Symetra Tour victory.