The wait is finally over for Shaughnessy Golf and Country Club.
It’s been three years since the club was scheduled to host the CPKC Women’s Open, but due to the COVID-19 pandemic that opportunity was postponed until 2023.
Shaughnessy was founded in 1911 just outside downtown Vancouver in British Columbia, Canada, and has a long, rich history in the game, hosting the likes of Bobby Jones, Sam Snead, Ben Hogan and Babe Zaharias, each of whom competed at the club before it relocated to its current location. Come Thursday, the venue will write a new chapter in its century-long history as it hosts the CPKC Women’s Open and becomes the first course in 20 years to host both of Canada’s men’s and women’s professional golf championships.
For two years the CPKC Women’s Open was canceled due to the pandemic and only returned to the schedule last season at Ottawa Hunt and Golf Club outside Ontario, where Paula Reto earned her first career win in 157 starts on the LPGA Tour.
Reto headlines this year’s field which features newly minted Rolex Women’s World Golf Rankings No. 1 Lilia Vu, a two-time major champion this season with wins at the Chevron Championship and AIG Women’s Open and current frontrunner for the Rolex Player of the Year award with three 2023 LPGA Tour titles.
Vu is joined in Canada by the other three 2023 major champions – Ruoning Yin, winner of the KPMG Women’s PGA Championship, Allisen Corpuz, who became a Rolex First-Time Winner at the U.S. Women’s Open and Celine Boutier, the first French winner of The Amundi Evian Championship. They make up a strong field that also features Nelly Korda, Minjee Lee and Atthaya Thitikul.
Former world No. 1s Jin Young Ko, who won in Canada in 2019, and Lydia Ko, a three-time winner of the CPKC Women’s Open, are also set to tee it up.
But perhaps the biggest star of the week, at least in the eyes of the Canadian fans who seem to love their golf just as much as they love their hockey, will no doubt be Brooke Henderson.
The two-time major champion and 13-time LPGA Tour winner is the winningest golfer in Canadian history, female or male. In 2018, Henderson made headlines with her victory at the CPKC Women’s Open, becoming the first to win her national championship since Jocelyn Bourassa in 1973. In June, Nick Taylor ended the winless drought on the men’s side when he became the first Canadian to win the RBC Canadian Open in 69 years.
Henderson leads a contingent of 10 Canadian professionals who are poised to compete this week outside Vancouver. Four Canadian amateurs were also extended special exemptions into the field, which will be finalized on Monday upon completion of a qualifier at Point Grey Golf and Country Club that will determine the last four spots in the field. All 156 players will be competing over the course of 72 holes for a $2.5 million purse.
The CPKC Women’s Open is the ninth of 10 consecutive events on the schedule this summer and marks not just the wind-down of the busiest portion of the 2023 season but also signals the end of Solheim Cup qualifying.
The European Solheim Cup Team finalized their squad after last week’s event in Northern Ireland and the U.S. Team will be finalized after this week’s event in Canada. The top seven players in the Solheim Cup Point Standings will earn an automatic berth, with Vu, Korda, Corpuz and Megan Khang already securing their spot on the team. The top two players in the Rolex Rankings, who haven’t already qualified via the point standings, will also earn a spot on the team with three picks from United States Solheim Cup Captain Stacy Lewis rounding out the 12-person squad.
It’s been a long two years for the Americans vying for a spot on their Solheim Cup team, but the wait is nearly over. Just as it is for Shaughnessy, which after a delay of three years, come Thursday, finally gets to host the CPKC Women’s Open.
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