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

 

Heading to French Lick for The Legends Championship

Yours truly will be in French Lick, Ind. in two weeks for the The Legends Championship where 50 or so LPGA greats will compete on the Pete Dye course at French Lick in their biggest event in 2016. The Senior PGA Championship was held at French Lick in 2015 and many other notable men’s and women’s events over the decades have been staged at French Lick’s Donald Ross course.

This historic resort features world-class golf courses in a beautiful town-not even mentioning the rare chance to see many of these Legends in action. More to follow…

2018, 2019 U.S. Senior Women’s Open Sites Announced by USGA

We finally know where the inaugural Senior Women’s Open (conducted by the USGA) will be staged in 2018. The 2019 site has also been selected.

Chicago Golf Club, which hosted its first two USGA championships in 1897, has been selected as the 2018 site and Pine Needles in North Carolina, a Donald Ross creation which has hosted several U.S. Women’s Opens, will be the 2019 venue.

2018 Senior Women’s Open Site Remains Unannounced

As of December 31, the USGA has announced the location of the 2020 Amateur Four-Ball (the Philadelphia Cricket Club) but not yet the inaugural U.S. Senior Women’s Open scheduled to debut in 2018. Really, USGA? In previous posts, I lobbied the USGA to select one of the great golf venues in Rochester, N.Y.

We do, of course, also wait with bated breath to learn of the site of the 2021 Four-Ball.

USGA Selects 2018 U.S. Women’s Amateur Site: Senior Women’s Open Next?

The USGA announced the site of the 2018 Women’s Amateur last week, The Golf Club of Tennessee. The site of that year’s U.S. Women’s Open, Shoal Creek, had already been announced as had the location of the 2018 U.S. Senior Women’s Amateur, Orchid Island Golf & Beach Club in Vero Beach, Florida.

I previously wrote an open letter to the USGA promoting Rochester, N.Y. as the site of the new U.S. Senior Women’s Open. One possibility is that the USGA will play it the week following the U.S. Women’s Open, à la the 2014 U.S. Open and U.S. Women’s Open doubleheader at Pinehurst No. 2, thus easing the championship into the calendar for its inaugural edition.

The USGA has been generally announcing Open sites at least three years ahead (usually longer than that). We should know the USGA’s selection relatively soon.

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)

 

 

 

 

 

An Inaugural Senior Women’s Open Wouldn’t be First Open in Rochester for LPGA Pros

The 1973 U.S. Women’s Open, conducted by the USGA, was held at The Country Club of Rochester, one of the premier private clubs in the area. Several clips of the television coverage of that event are available (see below). Several still-competing Legends players were in the Open field that week in 1973, including Jane Blalock, Shelley Hamlin, Susie Berning (the winner that year), Sandra Palmer, Donna Caponi, and JoAnne Carner.

Clip #1 in a series of ABC television coverage videos from that 1973 U.S. Women’s Open currently on Youtube is located below. The other clips can be easily found on Youtube. The commentary by Byron Nelson is classic!

Susie Berning won the 1973 U.S. Women’s Open at CCR in Rochester