No one knew what to expect in late January of 1950 when the Tampa Open, a women’s amateur event, reinvented itself and became the very first event of the newly formed LPGA Tour.

The host club, Palma Ceia Golf & Country Club in historic South Tampa, welcomed a field of professionals that included most of the original LPGA Founders. Tampa resident Babe Didrikson Zaharias, along with Patty Berg, Bette Jameson, Louise Suggs, Marilynn Smith, Alice Bauer and her younger sister Marlene Hagge-Vosler and Bettye Danoff were joined by soon-to-be LPGA Tour members like Babe’s on-the-road roommate Peggy Kirk Bell and a strong field of amateurs.

One of those amateurs, Polly Riley of Fort Worth, Texas, won the first LPGA tournament over Suggs and Zaharias. Seventy-five years to the day after that historic first event, another Polly, current LPGA Tour member Polly Mack, led a team that included LPGA veteran and Legends of the LPGA player Ashli Bunch and local high school player Charlotte Cantonis to victory in the Palma Ceia celebration event recognizing the 75th anniversary of the LPGA.

The event was an exhibition showcasing the past, present and future of women’s golf. A current LPGA player went out with a Legends player and a college or high-level junior athlete in a scramble at Palma Ceia in front of a gallery of members and invited guests. Proceeds from the event went to the LPGA Foundation and the One Million MORE Girls campaign of LPGA*USGA Girls Golf.

To the surprise of almost all the players, close to a thousand people showed up to watch. Emma Talley, who played with Jackie Gallagher-Smith and Rollins College senior Elizabeth Kondal, waved to the crowd behind the 18th green and said, “You guys are amazing. This is the best event ever. Thank you all for coming. This is great.”

Immediately after play, Brittany Lincicome, who went out with Charlotta Sorenstam and University of South Florida senior Leonor Medeiros, said of the weekend, “This was one of the best days I’ve had on the golf course in a long time. Such a wonderful idea and I’m so grateful to be a part of it.”

“The LPGA is the oldest professional women’s sports organization on the planet, and it all started here,” interim LPGA Commissioner Liz Moore said at the welcome reception where Palma Ceia members unveiled a plaque with the pictures of the 13 Founders and an inscription recognizing Palma Ceia as the host of the first LPGA tournament.

“When the LPGA charter was signed and filed all those years ago, nobody really knew what it meant, not even the original 13 Founders,” Moore said. “They had no idea where the LPGA Tour and this association would go. We know that because some of the Founders were around long enough to see it grow and tell us that themselves. They had no idea what women’s professional golf would become. But what they believed when they launched this Tour was that if they showcased their vision and their passion for the sport, people would respond. And the first to answer the call: Palma Ceia.”

LPGA Professional with junior at clinic

Before play, LPGA Professionals from Girls Golf chapters in Tampa and Miami hosted a clinic for juniors from the club. That was followed by a Q&A session with all the college participants, as well as Gallagher-Smith, Gail Graham, LPGA Player president and Tour veteran Vicki Goetze-Ackerman and reigning U.S. Senior Women’s Open champion Leta Lindley. Lincicome and 2016 U.S. Women’s Open champion Brittany Lang joined the group and answered questions for an hour.

“Golf is a game that brings so many different people together,” Lindley told the kids. “I’m sitting up here with friends that I played with on Tour many years ago, and with players who have won major championships on Tour relatively recently, and with college players who will be on Tour someday or will be teaching and mentoring the next generation.

“But you know what? We are all going out together to play. We share the same love and passion for the game. That is what golf can do for you. It can bring you together with people of different ages and different backgrounds. It will lead to friendships that you will keep for the rest of your lives.”

Prior to the event, Goetze-Ackerman told a poignant story from her days as a junior player. “I was 11 years old practicing on the putting green at the University of Georgia Golf Course where we lived,” she said. “Three women from the UGA women’s golf team happened to be walking past that putting green on their way to the first tee. I had admired these girls for a long time. I thought it was so cool that they had their outfits and the (team) bags, and they had these big bows in their hair. And they all seemed like they were having so much fun together. As they walked by, one of the UGA golfers asked me to join them. I looked at my dad and said, ‘What should I do?’ And he said, ‘Go play.’ So, I did.

“That simple acknowledgment of kindness impacted my life. It motivated me to want to play for UGA and to work hard. In the end, I did play for Georgia, and that same UGA player who invited me to play that day ended up being my coach there. As we celebrate the start of the LPGA Tour, its 13 Founders and Palma Ceia, let’s continue to pay it forward.”

Throughout 2025, the LPGA will celebrate its 75th anniversary. But as Moore said in her remarks before the event in Tampa, “No matter what, Palma Ceia and the LPGA are forever linked. No matter how many tournaments we play or how many venues or courses we see, Palma Ceia will always be the very first.”

Palma Ceia Golf & Country Club Celebrates LPGA's 75th Anniversary

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