LPGA Stars Join 3M Greats of Golf with Nicklaus, Player, and Irwin

After competing in the Greats of Golf scramble at the Insperity Invitational with a team that included Tony Jacklin, Tom Weiskopf, and David Graham, LPGA great Pat Bradley talked about the thrill it is for her to play with former PGA stars she rarely crossed paths with when she was winning on the LPGA Tour. She appreciates the game, the fans, volunteers, the fellow competitors, and what the sport has given her. #rolemodel

On the 18th hole on Saturday, she rolled in a birdie for the team that would give them one-stroke margin bragging rights over Team Nicklaus/Sorenstam. Sorenstam, Nancy Lopez, and Juli Inkster were the other LPGA players in the event.

Imagine that a small number of members at CCR didn’t want these classy players back in Rochester competing in the 2020 U.S. Senior Women’s Open. (I had suggested early in 2015 that CCR would be a great venue for the inaugural U.S. Senior Women’s Open event in 2018 due to the local golf history and the popularity of the LPGA here. However, the USGA staged it at Chicago Golf Club.) CCR last hosted the women at the 1973 U.S. Women’s Open, an event that seemed to propel the creation of the yearly LPGA stop at Locust Hill in 1977. A minority of CCR members voting against the 2020 Senior Open was truly a lose-lose-lose for the Rochester community, golf, and CCR. Snatching defeat from the jaws of victory…

Pat Bradley rolls in a long birdie for her team on 18 to shoot 31 @InsperityInvtnl. pic.twitter.com/Vpxs7Y5CTY

— PGA TOUR Champions (@ChampionsTour) May 4, 2019

 

Pettersen-Sorenstam Sagas Wiped Clean from LPGA Website

As of yesterday, there was no remaining hint on the LPGA’s front page of the scandals that rocked last weekend’s Solheim Cup in Germany. On Monday, there had been a link to European player Suzanne Pettersen’s apology for not conceding, after the fact, an 18-inch putt she was, of course, not required to concede. Nonetheless, Pettersen had brusquely walked off the green before her American opponent had putted, likely creating confusion that led to Alison Lee believing she had conceded it. Having picked up without a valid concession, the Americans lost the hole.

Annika Sorenstam did her part to add to the general consternation being again accused of improperly giving advice to European players during competition. She faced similar accusations in 2013 and has something of a record of ignoring rules or, at least, inexpedient points of etiquette. Not helping are her occasional Irked Princess-style complaints (more than a decade later, she was still miffed over having to replay that silly chip shot at the 2000 Solheim). She ended her career on a rather inauspicious note. Despite understandable frustration with the demeaning random drug tests the tour was performing, she seemed however to simply take exception to the fact that she was subjected to one of them. All in all, “magnanimous” is not the descriptor word that immediately comes to mind.

When it comes to sharp Solheim Cup jabs, who could forget Dottie Pepper’s year 2000 insistence that the Euros should in essence “know their place” since most of them would have been “bagging groceries” if it weren’t for the LPGA Tour.

Open Letter to USGA on Rochester for 2018 U.S. Senior Women’s Open

Enough has been written in previous posts to explain and describe the benefits of staging the 2018 U.S. Senior Women’s Open in the Rochester area. I’m taking a break from the verbiage today.

Visuals are more stimulating. To the USGA: Bring the championship to one of these great historic venues.

 

Oak Hill C.C.

 

The Country Club of Rochester

 

 

 

2015 Danielle Downey Classic Now Online

The 2015 Danielle Downey Classic golf tournament, a new stop on the Symetra Tour that effectively “replaces” the Wegmans LPGA Championship for Rochester golf fans, now has a home on the web.

Back in September, I suggested combining the Symetra competition in July with a Legends Tour competition. Following that post, it was announced that a similar event will be held in Florida this April. It will feature Legends players competing in a 36-hole “tournament-within-a-tournament” alongside Symetra Tour players.

It would be great for Rochester golf to have the LPGA’s “legends” return to Rochester in a competitive event. Rochester has a long history of major golf championships including multiple U.S. Opens, the Ryder Cup, PGA Championship, the 38-year run of LPGA tournaments and the LPGA Championship at Locust Hill C.C. and Monroe G.C., the U.S. Senior Open in 1984 and the U.S. Women’s Open in 1973 (in which several still-competing Legends players participated).

 

Legend Lopez to Chair Danielle Downey Event at Brook-Lea in Rochester

Nancy Lopez will be chair of the Symetra Tour’s Danielle Downey Classic this summer in Rochester. On this blog in September of 2014, I suggested combining the Downey event with a Legends Tour event when the tournament is held at Brook-Lea so as to bring all of the LPGA greats back to town to launch this new event. The Symetra Tour will be doing something very similar to this at a Florida tournament in April.

It has now been nearly a month since the Lopez announcement was made. We will see if any momentum for a joint Legends-Symetra tournament develops in ROC. For a 2015 event, the clock is ticking loudly.

Mallon Leads Legends Tour Event in Delray Beach

Meg Mallon, the 2000 winner at Locust Hill C.C. in Rochester, leads at 69 after the first round of the Legends Tour’s Walgreens Charity Championship. Danielle Ammaccapane was one back at 70 with a slew of players at 71 including Juli Inkster.

Reviving the Playing Captaincy for 2016 Ryder Cup Rebirth: Mickelson for Captain?

Has the drama associated with the team captain become an indispensable part of these international team golf competitions? If not, perhaps the restoration of the practice of having a playing captain would boost U.S. morale. With a playing captain, the American players might become a true team instead of independent agents who must be herded by a captain who is not of their own choosing and represents an arbitrary appendage to the team. The American downfall appears to have begun here at Oak Hill C.C. in Rochester in 1995. They were cocky then, too, come to think of it.

Perfect New Golf Event for Rochester? A Return of the LPGA’s Greats

They first came to Rochester more than 37 years ago. Many of these women made such an impression on local golf fans that it can’t be said that they ever truly left. Now, as the final Rochester LPGA event has been staged at Monroe G.C., after 37 years at Locust Hill C.C. and having been a “major” championship since 2010, the golf community is left without a top-tier women’s golf event. However, good memories and the spirit of the event persist among the many players, volunteers, organizers, and fans of the yearly competition. Though the Rochester community’s LPGA tournament is gone, and many of the revered players have moved onwards to their “senior” days, these players remain in the heart of Rochester golf fans—and ready to compete here again.

The community greatly benefited from the event’s long presence. Due to its support of Camp Good Days and other charities, and the golf competition itself, it became a local tradition and gathering place for the golf and business communities.

The Legends Tour, spearheaded by 1979 Rochester LPGA champion Jane Blalock in 2000, has assembled a contingent of events each year for LPGA players 45 and older. Many of the “legends” who were former Rochester champs enjoyed blockbuster crowds in 2006 when a special, former champions “shootout” was held at Locust Hill on Tuesday of tournament week. Attendance was comparable to most Thursday or Friday rounds.

A perfect, albeit smaller and more modestly-funded, replacement for the long-running LPGA tournament at Locust Hill and Monroe would be a Rochester Legends Tour event. Once again, the likes of Nancy Lopez, Patty Sheehan, Pat Bradley, Rosie Jones, Laura Davies, and Juli Inkster would grace the local golf scene as part of a community-building event. (Note: Annika Sorenstam will also be 45 in October of 2015)

Perhaps the USGA will decide the stage an inaugural U.S. Senior Women’s Open, a possibility under consideration. Rochester, due to the mutual appreciation between LPGA players and Rochester fans through the decades, and its great golf venues, would be an excellent choice for the first Open. In either case, whether as a fan-friendly Legends event, or a USGA championship, a return is possible and this blog is intended to serve as an informal discussion forum dedicated to the subject.

As related by the D&C: “Nancy Lopez will never forget the crowds, and the way Rochesterians welcomed the players of the LPGA Tour into their town, into their homes and into their hearts…”