The fifth hole at Ko Olina Golf Club in Hawaii, the site of last week’s LPGA Lotte Championship, is described as “another scoreable par 5.” That is always music to the ears of the organizers of the Wounded Warrior Project weekend.
Last week’s second annual event near Honolulu once again resulted in a big eagles catch, particularly on the 450-yard par 5. There were eight eagles last Friday and Saturday during the final two rounds of the tournament, with seven coming at the fifth hole. Angela Stanford, Sandra Changkija and So Young Lee eagled the hole in the third round and Sandra Gal, Ha Na Jang, So Yeon Ryu and Caroline Masson made eagles there in the final round.
Sei Young Kim added to the eagle barrage, with a hole-out for eagle on the par-4 18th hole in a playoff to defeat Inbee Park. However, playoff results don’t count toward the Wounded Warrior Project donation.
Still, through nine tournaments, there have been 68 eagles in the final two rounds of competition, bringing the total to $68,000 for the season.
The Wounded Warrior Weekend takes place during the final two rounds at LPGA tournaments, with CME Group donating $1,000 to the Wounded Warrior Project for each eagle that is recorded. This amount will increase to $5,000 for each eagle during the weekend of the season-ending CME Group Tour Championship and a formal check will be presented to the Wounded Warrior Project during the trophy ceremony. To get involved and learn more, visit woundedwarriorproject.org.
For the 2014 season, 283 eagles were made on the weekend, raising $283,000. While no eagles were made on the weekend in Naples, the CME Group generously rounded up to $300,000. The 2014 season also had a lot of aces and double eagles. Of the 31 holes in one, 15 came in weekend play. Of a record four double eagles during the year, three were scored on the weekend.