Gaby Lopez learned on Sunday that good things come to those who wait, as she won for the first time in two years during the LPGA Tour’s two-week trip to The Buckeye State. This week, the Tour makes the three-hour drive south from Toledo to Cincinnati, where golf fans have waited more than 30 years to see the return of the best female golfers in the world to their beloved city.
Thursday the inaugural Queen City Championship presented by P&G begins. While it may be the first playing of the event, it feels more like a homecoming as the women’s game has deep roots in Cincinnati dating back to 1963 when Kenwood Country Club, the host of the tour’s newest stop, welcomed the U.S. Women’s Open. And, for more than a decade the nearby Golf Center at Kings Island hosted the LPGA Championship, which was last played in the Queen City in 1989.
During the pandemic, Kenwood Country Club underwent a 36-hole renovation which reopened in the summer of 2021 to celebrate the club’s 90th birthday. Kenwood followed what has been the trend at historic venues across the United States as it was restored to its former glory. The Club was returned to its roots with more than 800 trees removed from the property, all 18 greens were expanded to their original size, and bunkers throughout the course were restructured.
This week, the new Kenwood Country Club will test the best in the women’s game as seven of the top 10 in the Race to the CME Globe Point Standings will compete in the inaugural Queen City Championship. Nearly two dozen major champions make up the field which includes four of this year’s major champions - Chevron Champion Jennifer Kupcho, U.S. Women’s Open champion Minjee Lee, Amundi Evian Champion Brooke Henderson, and AIG Women’s Open winner Ashleigh Buhai. Other headliners include Jessica Korda, Sei Young Kim, Lexi Thompson, and Danielle Kang. And the Tour’s most recent winner - Gaby Lopez.
Sunday at the Dana Open presented by Marathon, all aspects of Lopez’s game connected to perfection, which eluded her over the last season. The rising star from Mexico rallied from a four-stroke deficit on the final day with a closing round of 63 to capture her third victory on the LPGA Tour.
“Sometimes the biggest win is not winning over the field, it's winning against yourself and getting out of the way,” Lopez said after her victory. “This week I've been able to just kind of quiet my mind and take it one breath at a time, made it connect everything.”
Lopez’s victory came after a long, eight-month grind in which Lopez battled injuries to her neck and wrist and struggled to see all aspects of her game click at the same time. But after extensive work on her mental game during last week’s event in Sylvania, Ohio, Lopez activated the final piece that led to her win on Sunday - her mental game. By quieting her mind, not rushing herself, and letting success come to her, helped Lopez return to the winner’s circle for the first time since 2020.
Cincinnati sports fans know a thing or two about being patient, too. They waited 33 years for their once-downtrodden Bengals to return to the Super Bowl in January. Now, after a similarly long wait, they’re excited for the Tour’s homecoming.
Fans in the Queen City know good things come to those who wait, and the much-anticipated return of the LPGA has certainly been worth it.
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