LPGA Legends’ Long Push for USGA Recognition Bears Fruit: U.S. Senior Women’s Open Debuts in 2018

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Nancy Lopez will be 61 in 2018. Nevertheless, she will undoubtedly be looking forward to another shot at her first USGA “Open” win as a rookie, along with a full field of LPGA greats as rookies, at the USGA’s inaugural U.S. Senior Women’s Open now scheduled for 2018. This new championship, under consideration for decades (female professionals have never had a senior Open), was announced by the USGA today. Though a decorated player, Lopez never won a U.S. Women’s Open in 26 attempts.

Last September, I wrote on the possibility of an inaugural U.S. Senior Women’s Open being staged in Rochester, where the LPGA pros were so greatly popular for several decades (1977-2014). The 1973 U.S. Women’s Open was contested at The Country Club of Rochester.

Rochester has a long history of major golf championships including U.S. Opens, PGA Championships, LPGA Championships, the Ryder Cup and U.S. Amateur, the long-running LPGA tournament at Locust Hill C.C., and a U.S. Senior Open. Hosting the first U.S. Senior Women’s Open in 2018 would not only add to that history but it would plug the hole left by the Wegmans LPGA Championship’s departure in 2014.

Developing…

2/8/15 footnote: In 2010, I wrote this column on the same possibility. (subscription-required)

 

 

 

 

 

Legends Tour Season to Kick-Off in March

The season-opener on the Legends Tour for 2015, sponsored by Walgreens, is set for March 5-8 at Grandview Golf Course in Sun City West, Ariz. Former LPGA player Michelle McGann, a rookie again at 45, will make her Legends debut alongside 50 or so of her former competitors from the LPGA Tour.

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.

Power of Suggestion? Joint Legends-Symetra Patty Berg Tournament Set for April

A combined Symetra Tour-Legends Tour tournament, almost exactly what I suggested in September (Rochester’s Danielle Downey Classic Should Include LPGA “Legends” Competition; September 29, 2014) for next year’s Danielle Downey event at Brook-Lea in Rochester, has been announced for April 2015 in Florida. The Chico’s Patty Berg Memorial tournament will feature a 72-hole event for the Symetra players and a 36-hole event for the Legends Tour.

I’ll keep posting and maybe we can make more things just happen…

Mallon Wins Her First Legends Tour Event in Delray Beach

Meg Mallon won her first event since joining the Legends Tour this afternoon, shooting an even par 72 to follow her opening 69 to win by one stroke over Juli Inkster. The Walgreens Charity Championship was the final event of the Tour’s 2014 schedule.

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.

Legends Tour Heads to Delray Beach for Next Event

The Legends Tour tees up again at its next event, the Walgreens Charity Championship, in Delray Beach, Florida from November 6-9 at Seagate C.C. A star-studded field of LPGA greats will be there to close out the 2014 season including former Rochester winners Patty Sheehan, Nancy Lopez, Pat Bradley, Sandra Haynie, Rosie Jones, Meg Mallon, Jane Blalock, and Judy Dickinson.

At their last event at Old Waverly in Mississippi, the American team defeated the World team in the Handa Cup.

Photo Credit: The Legends Tour

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.

Rochester’s Danielle Downey Classic Should Include LPGA “Legends” Competition

In 2006, the Wegmans LPGA Rochester tournament featured a Tuesday “shootout” for former Rochester champs mostly retired from LPGA competition. Pat Bradley was the 18-hole winner over players such as Patty Sheehan, Nancy Lopez, Jane Blalock, Deb Richard, and Kathy Whitworth. It was very successful and well-attended (an LPGA tour caddie remarked that there was a larger gallery that day than at the prior week’s tournament in Westchester County). In fact, the attendance probably exceeded most Thursday tournament rounds. There is a hunger to see former stars that formed a bond with the local golf community and that have largely, although not completely, exited the limelight.

Including a similar event, or even a 36-hole Legends Tour event before or during Classic week at Brook-Lea C.C., would be a great way to remember that Rochester golf history of which Danielle Downey formed a part. The 2014 LPGA Championship completely failed to do this. Correcting that error at next summer’s Symetra Tour event would guarantee even greater attendance and attention for the Downey Classic.

Those past champs, or the LPGA “legends” players in general, could compete in their own senior division in a block of times either before or after the tee times for the main Symetra Tour competition-on Saturday and Sunday perhaps. Something similar to this is done each year at the 3M Championship. Staged on a Donald Ross course and featuring the LPGA’s past, present, and future, the Danielle Downey Classic would bring “full circle” Rochester’s LPGA golf history in a way the LPGA tournament never quite did.