When players tee it up at the KPMG Women’s PGA Championship at Westchester Country Club in Harrison, N.Y., June 11-14, they will be playing a new course in a tournament with a new name, but the stature of that event will not change.
The event, which is a new collaboration between the LPGA Tour and PGA of America, will continue the legacy of one of the association’s longest-standing major championships, the LPGA Championship. The $3.5 million event – which is enjoying a $1.25 million purse increase in 2015 – has a prestigious history dating back to 1955 and has seen some of the game’s most legendary players hoist its trophy.
Inbee Park is the two-time and reigning champion, having won each of the last two championships in playoffs, and she joined an amazing list of multiple-time winners in the process. A total of 18 Hall of Fame members have won the championship through the years, and Park is among the likes of Se Ri Pak (1998, 2002, 2006), Annika Sorenstam (2003-05), Juli Inkster (1999-2000), Laura Davies (1994, 1996), Patty Sheehan (1983-84, 1993), Nancy Lopez (1978, 1985, 1989), Donna Caponi (1979, 1981), Kathy Whitworth (1967, 1971, 1975), Betsy Rawls (1959, 1969) and Mickey Wright (1958, 1960-61, 1963) as multiple-time winners of the event.
That’s a pretty awesome list to be on, and a number of players have a chance this year to join them all, including Anna Nordqvist, Cristie Kerr, Shanshan Feng, Suzann Pettersen and Hall of Famer Karrie Webb. A total of 22 major champions will tee it up on the scenic par-73, 6,670-yard course that opened in 1922.
Several top-tier players – including world No. 1 Lydia Ko and two-time and reigning Rolex Player of the Year Stacy Lewis – are itching to add a KPMG Women’s PGA Championship triumph to their resumes, and a victory on June 14 would further cement their legacies as the world’s best. For others, a win would mean the world and would catapult them to newfound heights in the sport, so there will be no shortage of motivation for anyone teeing it up in the four-day extravaganza.
If Park can win again and complete a “trifecta,” she will be only the second woman to do so, along with Sorenstam, and will achieve one of the most impressive feats in the tournament’s history. Wright won her four titles in a six-year span to set the standard, and there’s no reason to think Park can’t keep her streak going.
Only the U.S. Women’s Open has a longer tenure, dating back to 1946, and the KPMG Women’s PGA Championship can compete with any tournament when it comes to cache or appeal. Not only is it a major championship, but it is an event that was one of the original cornerstones of the LPGA Tour’s foundation.
The tournament has long been one of the most beloved and treasured events on the LPGA schedule, and the association’s partnership with KPMG and the PGA of America should only heighten that sentiment. There has never been a tournament partnership like it in golf, and everyone in the industry is expecting great things from the big week in June.
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