The LPGA Comes to the Tri-State Area

Men's professional golf has largely abandoned the Philadelphia/tri-state area. The Senior PGA Tour event that was formerly held at the Chester Valley Golf Club, and later the Hartefeld National Golf Course in Avondale, has been relocated to the Tournament Players Club at Jasna Polana in the Princeton area of Central New Jersey. The PGA Tour visits the region only once every other year when the SEI Pennsylvania Classic is held at Waynesborough Country Club in Paoli. That event, however, is held in mid-September, and its future is uncertain due to poor attendance and the lack of participation by the top players on the PGA Tour.

Women's professional golf, however, is strongly represented in the region with the McDonald's LPGA Championship held at the DuPont Country Club in Wilmington, DE in early June, the ShopRite LPGA Classic held later in June at the Marriott Seaview Resort in Galloway Township, NJ, and the First Union Betsy King Classic held at the Berkleigh Country Club in Kutztown, Pa during August.

In addition, a 2002 U.S. Women's Open 36-hole sectional qualifying event is being held this year on the renowned East Course of the Blue Heron Pines Golf Club in Cologne, NJ, The top 21 finishers will advance to the U.S. Women's Open in Hutchinson, Kansas in July.

The LPGA Championship is one of the four majors on the LPGA Tour. All of the top women players in the world participate in this event every year, including the three international stars who have dominated the tour in recent years - Sweden's Annika Sorenstam, Australia's Karrie Webb and Korea's Se Ri Pak. In addition, many LPGA Hall of Fame members play in this tournament every year.

Many of the stars of the LPGA Tour will also play at the ShopRite tournament, in what is often a more relaxed atmosphere following the pressures (and difficult course conditions) of the McDonalds LPGA Championship and the "big payday" Evian Masters, held the next week in Evian-les-bains, France.

The LPGA Tour is, without question, a tour on the rise. Without question the increased popularity and press and TV coverage of the tour in recent years (not to mention the bigger purses), is largely due to the success of the international players who have dominated the tour for the past five years. If, however, the tour is to continue to grow and gain fans in the United States, more young American players will need to step forward to accept the challenge made each week from the international stars. Many of the better known American players are getting older, wins are few and far between. Just this year, Nancy Lopez has announced her retirement from full-time play on tour. Julie Inkster shows little sign of decline, but her own family responsibilities take her away from tour more and more.

The early results from 2002 show much promise for the future of American players on the LPGA Tour. Young tour pros and Florida residents Laura Diaz and Cristie Kerr have had excellent success so far in 2002 and appear to have firm holds on the top ten money list. Twenty-two year old Beth Bauer of Florida and nineteen year old Natalie Gulbis of Sacramento, California are locked in a tight struggle for LPGA Rookie of the Year honors.

Next page > Natalie Gulbis - Rising Star of the LPGA Tour > Page 1, 2

Photos by John Fischer
Photo - LPGA Tour Pro Annika Sorenstam