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.
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)
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.
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
The Legends Tour’s Handa Cup competition between U.S. and World Teams, held yearly since 2006, is being contested at Old Waverly G.C. in Mississippi this week. Nancy Lopez is the U.S. captain and Sally Little is the World captain.
These players love the competition and yet are very fan-friendly. There has been a great atmosphere at past Handa Cup events which is typical for all Legends Tour tournaments. These events are player and fan reunion, lively banter, and gritty competition all rolled into one package.
Read more about the 2014 Handa Cup here.
Fan has shirt signed by Pat Bradley at Legends tournament in Maine.
Nancy Lopez inked this shirt, too.
Bringing LPGA Legends Back to Rochester, NY 