Dinah Shore – Syndication Server

With the Chevron Championship at its new venue, how will Dinah Shore’s legacy continue in Texas?

The hospitality area around the 18th green will be named “Dinah’s Place” and Shore’s family has been invited.

Every time Pat Bradley walked by the statue of Dinah Shore next to the 18thgreen at Mission Hills Country Club, she’d climb up on the little base and put her hand on Dinah’s arm and have a chat. Longtime Desert Sun golf writer Larry Bohannan recalled the scene as he considered the question: How should Shore’s legacy continue in Texas?

Bradley, like so many LPGA greats, was friends with Shore. The Hollywood superstar made such a tremendous impact on the tour in the 1970s and ’80s that they put her in the LPGA Hall of Fame as the only non-playing member.

But as the 52nd Chevron Championship, still known by many as “The Dinah,” leaves the Dinah Shore Tournament Course and heads to The Woodlands near Houston this week, it’s natural to wonder how Shore will fit in.

“You can’t create that,” said Bohannan of Bradley’s ritual, “that has to be something that’s organic.”

Shore died in 1994, before nine of the top 10 players in the world were even born. Jane Blalock, the tournament’s first champion in 1972, said Shore could be compared to a modern-day Oprah in terms of her popularity and reach.

Another burning question before this year’s Chevron: Will the champion’s leap, the most significant tradition (one might argue the LPGA’s only noteworthy tradition), carry on?

Tournament organizers told Golfweek there’s no expectation that a player will jump into the lake on the 18th next month at the Nicklaus Course at The Club at Carlton Woods, but should the mood strike, the championship team is making sure it will be safe.

Here’s what it looks like on 18 at the Nicklaus Course for @Chevron_Golf. There’s a dock if someone wants to jump. Won’t be staged but a robe will be available. pic.twitter.com/zERHbLUg3v

— Beth Ann Nichols (@GolfweekNichols) April 18, 2023

An area of the lake at the 18th green is being dredged and netted to make sure it’s deep enough for a player and her caddie and family to take the plunge. The traditional robe and slippers will also be on standby, if needed.

“Whoever wins this year needs to jump in and keep it going,” said Brittany Lincicome, a two-time champion at Mission Hills.

The hospitality area around the 18th green at the Nicklaus course at Carlton Woods will be named “Dinah’s Place” and Shore’s family has been invited to attend.

Shore’s name will also live on in the generosity of the Chevron Dinah Shore Scholarships, given to high school seniors who are pursuing a college education but not playing collegiate golf. Nominees must have a passion for women’s golf and desire to help grow the game.

[pickup_prop id=”32191″]

There will once again be a Champions Dinner with Thomas Keller, chef and proprietor of The French Laundry, creating a special menu to honor 2022 champion Jennifer Kupcho. The tournament will also bring back a Junior Legacy Pro-Am, designed to link up legends of the game with bright young stars.

The Champions Wall will be, for now, a temporary structure that will celebrate the 51 years of history that took place at Mission Hills.

Sandra Palmer, an honorary member at Mission Hills who won 19 times on the LPGA, including the Colgate Dinah Shore Winner’s Circle before it was a major, feels the championship needs to find a new identity in her native Texas.

There was talk at last year’s Chevron about the LPGA Legends staging an event in the Coachella Valley this spring. There was even a news conference about it Sunday morning before Kupcho won.

Two weeks later, the PGA Tour Champions announced that the new Galleri Classic would be held March 24-26 at Mission Hills. Fred Couples, Steve Stricker, Ernie Els, Bernhard Langer and David Duval are among those who have committed to the field.

So far, nothing has been announced in the area for senior women.

Patty Sheehan, who won at Mission Hills in 1996 and lives there now part-time behind the 14th tee on the Dinah Shore Course, signed up to volunteer at the Galleri Classic. She was given three choices: walking scorer, work the range, help out in the caddie tent.

Sheehan, who hasn’t yet decided which job she’ll take, reported that the greens are hard and fast on the Dinah Shore Tournament Course but the rough isn’t up. They’ve added a couple new tees and trimmed the eucalyptus trees to open it up more.

“They’re trying to clean up Poppie’s Pond,” she said, “in case one of them tries to jump.”

Sheehan said she’s trying to “go down the positive road” about how things have turned out.

Jin Young Ko, caddie David Brooker and agent Soo Jin Choi leap into Poppie’s Pond next to the 18th green at Mission Hills Country Club after the 2019 ANA Inspiration on the Dinah Shore course in Rancho Mirage, California (Photo: Matthew Stockman/Getty Images)

Judy Rankin, who like Palmer and Blalock won the Dinah before it was a major, is doing the same. Rankin was part of the deep history of the LPGA at Mission Hills for five decades, right up to the final putt last year in the broadcast booth. She too would like to see the Chevron begin its own kind of history in her home state of Texas, noting that it’s probably right not to see a lot of Dinah this year, but that it’s never right to forget her.

“I think it’s part of growing old gracefully,” she said of adapting to change. “Be glad you had it, celebrate on a rare occasion, and let the new be new.”

[lawrence-auto-related count=3 category=1373]

[mm-video type=playlist id=01es6rjnsp3c84zkm6 player_id=01f5k5vfbhv59szck1 image=]

How will Dinah Shore’s legacy continue in Texas at the Chevron Championship and will the winner jump? Here’s what’s planned

Among the burning questions: Will the champion’s leap, the most significant tradition, carry on?

But as the 52nd Chevron Championship, still known by many as “The Dinah,” leaves the Dinah Shore Tournament Course and heads to The Woodlands near Houston this year (April 20-23), it’s natural to wonder how Shore will fit in.

“You can’t create that,” said Bohannan of Bradley’s ritual, “that has to be something that’s organic.”

Another burning question with only three events remaining before this year’s Chevron: Will the champion’s leap, the most significant tradition (one might argue the LPGA’s only noteworthy tradition), carry on?

[pickup_prop id=”32191″]

“Whoever wins this year needs to jump in and keep it going,” said Brittany Lincicome, a two-time champion at Mission Hills.

View of the 18th hole at the Jack Nicklaus Signature Golf Course at Carlton Woods. (courtesy The Club of Carlton Woods)

The hospitality area around the 18th green at the Nicklaus course at Carlton Woods will be named “Dinah’s Place” and Shore’s family has been invited to attend.

The Champions Wall will be, for now, a temporary structure that will celebrate the 51 years of history that took place at Mission Hills.

There was talk at last year’s Chevron about the LPGA Legends staging an event in the Coachella Valley this spring. There was even a news conference about it Sunday morning before Kupcho won.

So far, nothing has been announced in the area for senior women.

“They’re trying to clean up Poppie’s Pond,” she said, “in case one of them tries to jump.”

Sheehan said she’s trying to “go down the positive road” about how things have turned out.

The 18th green at the Jack Nicklaus Signature Golf Course at Carlton Woods (courtesy The Club at Carlton Woods)

Judy Rankin, who like Palmer and Blalock won the Dinah before it was a major, is doing the same. Rankin was part of the deep history of the LPGA at Mission Hills for five decades, right up to the final putt last year in the broadcast booth. She too would like to see the Chevron begin its own kind of history in her home state of Texas, noting that it’s probably right not to see a lot Dinah this year, but that it’s never right to forget her.

“I think it’s part of growing old gracefully,” she said of adapting to change. “Be glad you had it, celebrate on a rare occasion, and let the new be new.”

[mm-video type=playlist id=01es6rjnsp3c84zkm6 player_id=01evcfxp4q8949fs1e image=]

Patty Sheehan’s sensational flip highlights true final leap at the Dinah, where past champions soaked it all in at Chevron Championship

“Do it! Do it!” fans screamed as a foursome of past champions huddled on the back of the 18th green.

[parone_rss_video_player campaign=”102″ feed=”20-lpga-video” env=”prod” defaultlang=”en” /]

RANCHO MIRAGE, California – “Do it! Do it!” fans screamed as a foursome of past champions huddled on the back of the 18th green. Jennifer Kupcho, the 2022 Chevron champion, was out of Poppie’s Pond and wrapped in a robe by this point.

And here they came, led by the ever-spunky Patty Sheehan, who at age 65 did a front flip into Poppie’s Pond that was downright legendary. France’s Patricia Meunier-Lebouc was carried into the pond by her husband when she won back in 2003. She called home to say she planned to jump in for the first time on her own two feet.

Sandra Palmer tripped before she got to the pond, a scary moment that she played off well, walking over to the side of the pool and wading in with a little shimmy. Palmer, 79, who is still a teaching pro here in the desert, won the Colgate-Dinah Shore Winner’s Circle in 1975 before it became a major.

Amy Alcott, the player who started this whole tradition in the first place, took her time at the water’s edge, lifting up a rose to the heavens in memory of her longtime caddie Bill Curry, who died last year. Alcott then put her hands above her head and dove headfirst into the pond.

“I can feel him all around here,” said Alcott, choking back tears.

This was the best part of the day. Patty Sheehan’s front flip is LEGENDARY. Sandra Palmer is OK! That’s her dancing after she fell. Amy Alcott w/ emotional tribute to her late caddie. Held a🌹to the sky and then dove in. Backstrokes for the finishing touch!

Farewell, Dinah! 🙏🏻 pic.twitter.com/x09A6bnkky

— Beth Ann Nichols (@GolfweekNichols) April 4, 2022

Sheehan didn’t dive into the murky water when she won here in 1996. It wasn’t clean like a swimming pool back then. But she did dive in when Rose Zhang won the ANA Junior Inspiration in 2018. Zhang felt awkward about the whole thing, said Sheehan.

“I said come on, go swimming with me,” said Sheehan, “so I did the backstroke there, too.”

Rumors began swirling earlier in the week that past champions might jump into Poppie’s Pond, but Sheehan said nothing was really solidified until Meunier-Lebouc said, “if you do, I do.”

Patty Sheehan swims in Poppie’s Pond after jumping in after the 2022 Chevron Championship at Mission Hills Country Club in Rancho Mirage, California. (Photo: Taya Gray/The Desert Sun)

Beth Daniel, Meg Mallon and Rosie Jones sat in the front row of the grandstands as the whole thing unfolded. All three finished runner-up at this event. An important chapter of LPGA history closed on Sunday and they weren’t going to miss it.

“We’ve got to embrace the future,” said Meunier-Lebouc, clutching a white towel after one final leap.

“That’s what we have to do.”

[vertical-gallery id=778259060]

The first edition of the Dinah Shore featured a legendary field and big money. The 2022 Chevron Championship winner will earn $750,000.

The first winner at Dinah Shore earned $20,050. The last winner this year will earn $750,000.

The first edition of the Chevron Championship in 1972 featured a game-changing $110,000 purse and a field that reads like a who’s who list of golf.

Mickey Wright, Kathy Whitworth, Patty Berg, JoAnne Carner, Betsy Rawls, Judy Rankin, Louise Suggs, Marilynn Smith, Sandra Palmer.

Jane Blalock won the first one, a glamorous 54-hole event that transformed the LPGA. Her prize: $20,050.

This week’s purse of $5 million is up 60 percent over last year. The winner will receive $750,000. The player finishing around 46th this week will earn a paycheck that’s similar to what Blalock earned all those years ago.

It’s not all about the money, of course, but with the U.S. Women’s Open moving to a $10 million purse, Chevron’s elevation of this event matters.

Here’s a closer look back on that starry first field:

Name	Position	Score	Money
Jane Blalock	1	213	$20,050
Carol Mann	T-2	216	$11,550
Judy Rankin	T-2	216	$11,550
Jo Ann Prentice	4	217	$6,550
Sandra Haynie	T-5	218	$4,500
Mickey Wright	T-5	218	$4,500
Kathy Whitworth	T-7	218	$4,500
Pam Higgins	T-7	219	$3,200
Sandra Palmer	T-9	221	$2,500
Pam Barnett	T-9	221	$2,500
Gloria Ehret	T-11	222	$2,000
Betsy Cullen	T-11	222	$2,000
Kathy Cornelius	T-13	223	$1,700
Clifford Creed	T-13	223	$1,700
Marlene Hagge	T-13	223	$1,700
Louise Suggs	T-13	223	$1,700
Jan Ferraris	T-17	225	$1,475
JoAnne Carner	T-17	225	$1,475
Marilynn Smith	T-19	226	$1,350
Murle Breer	T-19	226	$1,350
Kathy Ahern	T-19	226	$1,350
Beth Stone	T-22	227	$1,200
Cynthia Sullivan	T-22	227	$1,200
Sandra Elliott	T-22	227	$1,200
Peggy Wilson	T-25	228	$1,075
Margie Masters	T-25	228	$1,075
Donna Young	T-27	229	$925
Mary Mills	T-27	229	$925
Ruth Jessen	T-27	229	$925
Althea Darben	T-27	229	$925
Betsy Rawls	T-31	230	$775
Kathy Farrer	T-31	230	$775
Gerda Boykin	T-31	230	$775
Sue Berning	34	231	$725
Judy Kimball	35	232	$700
Barbara Romack	T-36	233	$662.50
DeDe Owens	T-36	233	$662.50
Sandra Spuzich	38	234	$625
Lesley Holbert	39	236	$600
Patty Berg	40	237	$575

Here’s how much money each player will make this year.

2022 Chevron Championship prize money payouts

Position	Earnings
1	$750,000
2	$460,636
3	$334,159
4	$258,498
5	$208,063
6	$170,232
7	$142,491
8	$124,839
9	$112,228
10	$102,139
11	$94,571
12	$88,266
13	$82,718
14	$77,676
15	$73,135
16	$69,100
17	$65,572
18	$62,545
19	$60,024
20	$58,004
21	$55,989
22	$53,969
23	$51,954
24	$49,934
25	$48,170
26	$46,406
27	$44,637
28	$42,873
29	$41,108
30	$39,595
31	$38,081
32	$36,567
33	$35,054
34	$33,540
35	$32,282
36	$31,019
37	$29,761
38	$28,498
39	$27,235
40	$26,228
41	$25,220
42	$24,213
43	$23,200
44	$22,193
45	$21,436
46	$20,679
47	$19,923
48	$19,166
49	$18,409
50	$17,652
51	$17,151
52	$16,645
53	$16,139
54	$15,637
55	$15,131
56	$14,625
57	$14,124
58	$13,618
59	$13,116
60	$12,610
61	$12,360
62	$12,104
63	$11,853
64	$11,603
65	$11,347
66	$11,097
67	$10,846
68	$10,590
69	$10,340
70	$10,089
71	$9,964
72	$9,834
73	$9,708
74	$9,583

[vertical-gallery id=778259060]

[mm-video type=playlist id=01es6rjnsp3c84zkm6 player_id=01evcfxp4q8949fs1e image=https://golfweek.usatoday.com/wp-content/plugins/mm-video/images/playlist-icon.png]

This woman creates thousands of flower ribbons and has passed them out at the Dinah Shore for 23 years

In the course of the four days here, she will give 1,000 of the flower ribbons away.

There are several styles of smiles.

The full grin of the Cheshire Cat, the muted purse of the Mona Lisa, or the missing-toothed version favored by toddlers.

For the last 23 years at the desert’s LPGA event the Chevron Championship, Judi Callaway has seen them all.

Callaway, an 80-year-old from San Diego, has been a mainstay in her lawn chair in the shade of a giant eucalyptus tree in front of the 18th green at Mission Hills Country Club. As players and spectators walk by, she offers them a flower made out of ribbon that she made by hand.

“People always try to give me a donation, but I’m not doing it for money, I’m doing it for smiles,” she said Thursday, the first day of the tournament in Rancho Mirage. “That’s why I call them smile flowers.”

And the flowers work. Sit with Judi for any length of time and you’ll see her hand out her corsage-like, colorful handiwork, and the recipient always walks away with a grin.

Callaway said she starts making the smile flowers in February each year, and it takes her three-and-a half hours to make a box of 25 ribbon blossoms. By the time the tournament starts a month later, she has made 1,000. And in the course of the four days here, she will give them all away.

More: ‘Treating us like we were somebody’: Money, television and Dinah Shore helped jumpstart the LPGA

“It’s just ribbon, wire and flower tape, and then I include a pin, of course, so they can attach it to their hat or their shirt or whatever,” Callaway said. “At this point, a lot of the players know me and when they see me they come over and they know what they’re getting.”

She’s not wrong. She’s outfitted some of the biggest names in LPGA circles from Hall of Famers to current stars. She said Juli Inkster and Christina Kim have been some of her favorites over the years.

For Kim, the feeling is mutual.

“It’s just part of coming here for me. It’s just one of the annual traditions I have. I see Judi, I give her a hug and see how she’s doing and how her husband is doing,” Kim said after her round Friday. “Catching up is our annual tradition, which is a very sad thing to be ending.”

Kim said, for the record, that she has at least a dozen flower ribbons at home and about 10 of another of Judi’s creations, wine-bottle aprons. Those are little aprons that fit your wine bottle that Judi created and worked on during the pandemic.

Lexi Thompson, the 2014 champion here, said Judi is as much a fabric of this tournament to her as the San Jacinto Mountains and the Dinah Shore statue.

“Ever since I was here when I was 14, I remember her being here,” the 27-year-old Thompson said Thursday. “She’s an amazing lady, and I think all of us look forward to seeing her coming up to the 18th green.”

Judi Callaway poses for a photo with her flowers made of ribbon from alongside the 18th green at Mission Hills Country Club in Rancho Mirage, Calif., Thursday, March 31, 2022.

Origin story

Judi’s neighbor in the 1970s as well as Tony Orlando and Dawn are all partly responsible for the boxes of ribbon flowers that Judi carts out to the 18th hole every year.

“Over 40 years ago, I had a very sweet neighbor that took the time and taught me how to make them,” Judi said. “Since then, I’ve made them for weddings, birthdays, you name it, but when I got real serious about making them had to do with the military service.”

Both of Callaway’s sons were in the Army and when the song by Orlando and Dawn “Tie a Yellow Ribbon Round the Ole Oak Tree” became a hit, Judi got a bright idea.

Callaway started making red, white and blue ones with a yellow ribbon flower in the middle. She said those were quite popular with her family and friends, and she’s been making them ever since. She shares them with people at work, people in her neighborhood and then when she and Don began volunteering at the golf tournament in the desert in 1998, she decided to bring some.

Callaway has always been handy with her hands. She’s had many jobs throughout her career. She was a janitor, she cut keys and made trophies and she’s proud to say she was one of the first volunteer firewomen in North Carolina.

“My husband was in the military and four of them were volunteers and when they went off to war that left the station empty, so the four of us women stepped in,” she said. “We had boots, coats, helmets everything. We had to battle some fires, too.”

Flower forms made of ribbon are seen made by Judi Callaway to give out to players and spectators at Mission Hills Country Club in Rancho Mirage, Calif., Thursday, March 31, 2022.

Happy couple

Judi is accompanied every year by her husband Don. The 85-year-old former military man also volunteers at the tournament, and he works behind the green on the 18th hole.

“He always likes to keep an eye on me,” she said with a laugh.

The couple make a week of it and stay at a favorite small motel of theirs that she said is on the Cathedral City/Palm Springs border.

Unfortunately for people like Judi and Don and other volunteers who consider working at the desert’s LPGA tournament a cherished part of their year, this will be the final installment. The tournament is moving to Houston next year.

“I’m very sad about it. We love it out here. It’s beautiful out here, and that’s not to say it isn’t beautiful where we live, too, but this is special. It’s a special getaway for us,” she said.

Judi said that’s not going to stop her, though. She plans to give out her smile flowers at an LPGA tournament in Carlsbad instead.

“Especially after these last couple years, I think people need fun things like this,” she said. “I know they aren’t a necessity, but to make people smile, to me, that is a necessity.”

Shad Powers is a columnist for The Desert Sun. Reach him at shad.powers@desertsun.com.

[vertical-gallery id=778259060]

[mm-video type=playlist id=01es6rjnsp3c84zkm6 player_id=none image=https://golfweek.usatoday.com/wp-content/plugins/mm-video/images/playlist-icon.png]

Bohannan: A long, slow goodbye for an LPGA major whose time might simply have run out

The powerful, lucrative sponsor was too good to pass up.

Was it really the conflict with the Augusta National Women’s Amateur that brought about the end? Or was it the galleries that seemed to get a little smaller each year? Or was it the lack of an immediately recognizable title sponsor?

Or maybe it was just the march of time that will see the LPGA’s first major championship of the year be played for the final time in the Coachella Valley next April. An event that seemed woven into the fabric of the desert, the newly christened Chevron Championship will be ripped out of Southern California and transplanted to a yet-to-be-named course in the Houston area for 2023.

New dates later in the spring, a shiny new sponsor in Chevron, a huge jump in the purse and even the promise of network television times await the tournament in Texas. What will be left behind will be history, tradition, a great golf course and memories, things that don’t resonate all that much in the modern world of sports.

Make no mistake, the tournament most recently known as the ANA Inspiration had its problems, not the least of which was the looming loss of All Nippon Airways as a sponsor after 2022. As an international airline, ANA was hemorrhaging money like all airlines in the pandemic era, and no fans at Mission Hills the last two years because of COVID-19 didn’t help the event or its sponsor.

[vertical-gallery id=778096604]

More: End of an Era: LPGA major championship, once the Dinah Shore, will leave Coachella Valley after 2022

More: From Mickey Wright to Pernilla Lindberg, ANA Inspiration’s biggest moments are unforgettable

The conflict with the Augusta National Women’s Amateur was a bigger problem than the LPGA or tournament officials first believed. Augusta National, home of the Masters, is the 800-pound gorilla of golf, and the minute the Georgia club announced the ANWA for dates that conflicted with the LPGA major, smart people in golf knew a date change for the LPGA would be necessary. Augusta National could hold a cornhole tournament and people would watch.

LPGA losing history, tradition, a great course

Crowds that seemed smaller and smaller each year also were a problem. After the LPGA brought ANA to the event, saving the tournament for 2015, a high-ranking LPGA official looked at the sparse crowds during the third round of the tournament and wondered if desert fans understood how hard then-commissioner Mike Whan had worked to keep the tournament in the desert.

It was a well-known secret through much of 2014 that when Kraft walked away from the event that year, several sponsors wanted to take over, but only if they could move it from Rancho Mirage to the east coast or Texas or other far-flung locations. The lure of Poppie’s Pond, the players’ love of the Dinah Shore Tournament Course and a colorful history inspired the LPGA to keep the event in the desert with a sponsor from Japan.

That will all come to an end on April 3, the final scheduled round for the old Dinah Shore tournament in the desert.

Yes, the ANWA hurt the desert major, and so did small crowds in the relatively small market of the Coachella Valley. The number of times someone called the tournament “the ANNA” alone might have driven the LPGA out of the desert.

In the end, the tournament is moving because a powerful sponsor that the LPGA needs and covets is putting up big money and will get the tournament in a better location, with better television exposure and a date away from the ANWA. The greater Houston area will provide larger crowds, and current and future players will grow less and less attached to the old days in the desert. Honestly, how many players on the global LPGA have a true grasp of who Dinah Shore was?

So it could be a bigger and better tournament. But it won’t be the same. It can’t be the same. The LPGA and Chevron can find a great golf course, dig a new lake next to the 18th green and even move the statue of Dinah Shore away from Mission Hills Country Club, and it won’t be the same.

No one in Houston will be able to say, hey, that’s where Mickey Wright won her last LPGA event, or that’s where Karrie Webb holed that unforgettable wedge, or that’s where Betsy King holed that crucial bunker shot. They won’t be able to say Houston is where Annika Sorenstam won three times, where a fiesta broke out when Lorena Ochoa won or where Inbee Park and Pernilla Lindberg played an epic eight-hole, two-day playoff. And they won’t say Houston is where Amy Alcott started a winner’s tradition of jumping into Poppie’s Pond, pretty much the only LPGA highlight guaranteed to make SportsCenter year after year.

Some fans will be disappointed by the news of the end of the LPGA in the desert. Others will be heartbroken and shed some tears. A few, even some at Mission Hills Country Club, will shrug their shoulders and move on. But knowing the 2022 Chevron Championship will be the 51st and last time the event is played in the desert will feel like the loss of an old friend. And that’s a feeling that will stick around for a while.

Larry Bohannan is the golf writer for the Palm Springs Desert Sun, he can be reached at larry.bohannan@desertsun.com or (760) 778-4633. Follow him on Facebook or on Twitter at @larry_Bohannan.

[mm-video type=playlist id=01es6rjnsp3c84zkm6 player_id=01evcfxp4q8949fs1e image=https://golfweek.usatoday.com/wp-content/plugins/mm-video/images/playlist-icon.png]

Exclusive: Chevron ushering in new LPGA era with bigger purse, new date, major changes to former Dinah Shore event

The LPGA and IMG will Chevron as the event’s new title sponsor, Golfweek has learned, signing a six-year contract with the global giant.

For a tour that was founded in 1950, the LPGA doesn’t have many traditions. Longevity is a precious commodity in the women’s game, even when it comes to major championships. Which is why word that the ANA Inspiration is getting a facelift – new name, new location, new purse – is blockbuster news.

The LPGA and IMG are set to announce Chevron as the event’s new title sponsor, Golfweek has learned, signing a six-year contract with the global giant.

“This partnership elevates us to a whole different level,” LPGA commissioner Mollie Marcoux Samaan told Golfweek.

The Chevron Championship will stay at the Dinah Shore Tournament Course at Mission Hills for 2022 in its traditional spot ahead of the Masters, and ANA will stay on as a partner for next year. The purse will increase 60 percent from $3.1 million to $5 million, putting it now ahead of the $4.5 million purses both the Amundi Evian Championship and KPMG Women’s PGA awarded in 2021.

After 2022, however, several more significant changes are in store.

The event will move away from Mission Hills, its only home since the event’s founding. The tour is looking to potentially relocate the tournament to the greater Houston area, home to roughly 8,000 Chevron employees and contractors.

There are also plans in place to move the tournament dates to later in the spring in 2023, allowing the event to be shown on NBC. The LPGA’s first major has been shown solely on Golf Channel in recent years. The current dates have also conflicted with the Augusta National Women’s Amateur, which airs its final round on NBC.

The ANA Inspiration celebrated its 50th anniversary in 2021, though fans weren’t allowed on property for a second straight year due to the COVID-19 pandemic. The 2022 edition is set to take place March 31-April 3, giving players one more chance to take a final leap into Poppie’s Pond.

President Gerald Ford, actress Dinah Shore, golfer Judy Rankin and Colgate-Palmolive president David Foster at the Colgate Dinah-Shore Winners Circle tournament, which was held in the late 1970s at Mission Hills Country Club in Rancho Mirage, California. (Photo: Desert Sun)

Colgate-Palmolive CEO David Foster created the event in 1972 and tabbed Dinah Shore as hostess on the new Mission Hills course. It was a marquee tournament from the start. The first purse at the Colgate-Dinah Shore Winner’s Circle was $110,000, at a time when the average purse on tour was roughly $30,000.

“It took the LPGA from being great women playing golf to celebrity status,” Jane Black, winner of the first Dinah, once told Golfweek.

Even though Dinah Shore was officially dropped from the event’s title in 2000, many still unofficially refer to the event as “The Dinah.” Amy Alcott became the first to leap into the pond on the 18th in 1988 to celebrate her second victory at Mission Hills.

While the future of traditions like the champion’s leap is unknown at this point, Ed McEnroe, senior vice president of golf events at IMG, said finding ways to honor the tournament’s history going forward remains a priority in this new era. To that end, the tournament will have a special Player Advisory Board to help shape what comes next.

“We have such a responsibility with this event,” he said.

This marks Chevron’s first big sponsorship with a women’s sports league. Al Williams, vice president of corporate affairs at Chevron, said the global nature of the LPGA and shared core values made the partnership a natural fit.

Lexi Thompson interacts with fans at the ANA Inspiration.

For Lexi Thompson, the 2014 ANA champion, taking a leap into Poppie’s Pond with her family has been the highlight of her career. It’s a venue players have looked forward to for decades.

LPGA rookie Patty Tavatanakit went wire-to-wire to win the 2021 edition in thrilling fashion over 2016 ANA champion Lydia Ko, who closed with a 62.

“The views are great, and as we said, the history, too,” said World No. 1 Nelly Korda last spring. “I’ve always said, it’s kind of like the Masters for us in women’s golf, so it’s definitely something you as a professional golfer, you want to win.”

All Nippon Airways, Japan’s largest airline, had been the title sponsor since 2015. ANA staged two majors in the span of seven months during a global pandemic that crippled the travel industry.

Former LPGA commissioner Mike Whan once said that signing a contract with ANA to replace Kraft Nabisco as title sponsor was his best day on the job. Securing and elevating the events that form the cornerstones of the LPGA is an ongoing priority for every commissioner.

“If you go back to why David (Foster) and Dinah (Shore) founded this event, they really wanted to have a platform to advance women’s excellence,” said Chevron’s Williams. “That’s something that we look forward to continuing to collaborate with the tour, with the players and really advancing women’s excellence.

“It’s amazing, you fast forward 50 years and our work is not done.”

[mm-video type=playlist id=01es6rjnsp3c84zkm6 player_id=none image=https://golfweek.usatoday.com/wp-content/plugins/mm-video/images/playlist-icon.png]

Happy 50th ANA: Judy Rankin talks about her win in ’76, Dinah Shore’s love for the LPGA and Michelle Wie’s return

As the ANA Inspiration celebrates its golden anniversary this week, Golfweek caught up with the incomparable Judy Rankin.

As the ANA Inspiration celebrates its golden anniversary this week, Golfweek caught up with the incomparable Judy Rankin, who as a past champion and Golf Channel analyst, knows and appreciates the totality of this event—from start to present—better than anyone.

The ANA turns 50 this year. You won the fifth edition of the event. What’s your favorite memory from your victory here in 1976?

I think just winning because I had sort of taken up the feeling that the actual winning of it was for somebody else. I think around the last three holes, I finally was slapping myself in the face and saying somebody has to win this, and it might as well be you. I birdied the 15th hole which kind of got me going pretty well, and then I hit a really good long iron into 16. But you have to understand, 15 and 16 were different holes than they are today. … There have been tweaks and re-dos over a lot of years. Not everything was exactly the way you see it today, but regardless, I won it on a really difficult day. It was very cold and very windy. I think I shot 68 in the final round. I was pretty happy with the round that day. I was just overwhelmed to have won it.

If jumping into Poppie’s Pond had been a thing back then, what kind of jump would we have seen from you?

It was so cold I would’ve needed a wet suit. I don’t think it would’ve been anything glamorous or very funny. I think I’d have just jumped. At this point right now, I’m glad we weren’t jumping in those days.

How important has this event been to the LPGA since Day 1?

So important. I can’t even tell you. It was, I think, the real catalyst for the mid 70s and the way the LPGA started to be recognized and treated. An awful lot of it was the tournament, an awful lot of it was a really good golf course, but at the time a very young golf course. And the icing on the cake was when Dinah came on after a couple years. Dinah had so much respect in her industry that it seemed like she brought that respect to our industry. She was just wonderful.

For those who came along after Dinah Shore, how would you describe her?

She was warm and smiling and encouraging. She was such a fan of the players. She took up golf because of us and really became kind of an addict, a fanatic. I still have my cookbook that says she’d teach me how to cook if I’d teach her how to play. As famous as she was or not, you would really like to know her.

Does the LPGA need a modern-day Dinah?

I don’t think it would hurt. It’s not something I’ve thought about a lot. At that time, a name like Dinah Shore opened a lot of doors. Anything that gets eyes on how good these players are today is a worthy experiment.

The 18th will go back to its island roots this week with no wall or grandstand. How tough was that hole in its original island form?

It was never a two-shot hole for us, certainly not for me. I do remember a player or two who hit the green in two, but I don’t know if we played an alternate tee or not. To tell you the truth I can’t remember. … When we played it, at least initially, there was a much bigger driving area. It was just before the corner, where the water sticks out to the left. Initially, the tee shot at 18 was not as hard as I see as it is now.

Over time they started tightening that area and then adding bunkers on the right. As years went by, it kept becoming a more difficult driving hole. In our case, if you go back to the first several years, the key was really the layup. If you laid it up in trouble, there were bunkers to the right and the rough was thick. The layup was kind of tough. I cannot tell you how many times we played that hole, where if you got there in three it was a miracle. It was that long. I’ve hit a 3-wood into that green and it wasn’t my second shot.

How important is it that the ANA Inspiration stays at Mission Hills?

I know there could be another great tournament. But this is the signature golf course for this time of year, right ahead of the Masters. I do think something would be lost. But I would also say that in this professional golf thing, longstanding places, this tour, the PGA Tour, sometimes areas run their course. Sometimes the volunteers have volunteered so many times and they just don’t have it in them anymore. It’s just a fact of life. It’s not anybody’s fault. I hope that’s not happening here, but I think it’s going to be a very hard championship without fans.

What’s been your favorite ANA finish as a broadcaster?

In my recent memory, as much as I like Inbee, I was holding my breath for Pernilla Lindberg. She had just stood up to the pressure so well.

The leaderboard last week at the Kia was packed with big names. Who’s your dark horse for this week?

You know who I think should play well? Minjee Lee. She was playing just well enough last week, and I always think that she’s going to explode on a difficult golf course. Last week she was showing tremendous length off the tee.

Kia Classic Michelle Wie West — Michelle Wie West during her practice round ahead of the KIA Classic at the Aviara Golf Club on March 23, 2021 in Carlsbad, California. (Photo by Donald Miralle/Getty Images)

Michelle Wie recently came back on tour as a mom. You won all 26 of your titles after son Tuey was born. What’s the best part about life on tour as a mom, and do you think Michelle Wie can enjoy another chapter of success?

Based on what I saw last week of her golf game, I would say yes. But based on what I know of last year’s history, I would say I don’t have a clue. She’s always been somewhat of a mystery to me. It seemed like she came back with a little bit of her old style, her old swing, which I sure liked seeing. …. I thought she made a lot of swings that were gorgeous.

We didn’t have daycare or any of those things. Juli Inkster talks about having her kids sleep in the closet in the hotel room. The best part about it is when you survive it and you’re somewhat successful and your kids are out there with you. Because as much time as you don’t spend with them playing, you spend more quality time with them on the road than you would at home. … There’s a lot of hard things, but make no mistake there’s a lot of perks.

This is the final major with LPGA commissioner Mike Whan. What are your must-have qualities for whoever comes next?

I’m not the first person who has said this, but he’s going to be very hard to follow. You have to be a high-energy person. Going to have to smile easily, draw people in right away because of the warmth. He or she might talk just a fraction slower than Mike. I think we need a high-energy marketer who really believes in this product.

This would not be a good job for somebody who is trying to find some sort of ladder of success in the business world. You’ve got to have your heart in this job.

[vertical-gallery id=778065443]

Opinion: Great Wall of Dinah overshadows dramatic ANA Inspiration finish

The LPGA had a dreamy finish in store for the ANA Inspiration, but it all came to a crashing, truly comical halt at Mission Hills.

It seemed almost destined to happen.

Build an eyesore of a wall on an island green and balls will bounce. Bogeys will turn into birdies. Even an eagle! It’s the same for everyone, of course. But the LPGA had a dreamy finish in store, and it all came to a crashing, truly comical halt.

Mirim Lee won the tournament outright with her three chip-ins, including an electric eagle on the 72^nd hole. No one can dispute the way she coolly kept her head in the game while the blonde bombers traded blows in the spotlight.

But Lee’s eagle came on the heels of a 5-wood that might have found the water had the Great Wall of Dinah not stopped it cold. That was the plan all along for Lee, and no one can blame her.

The blue wall behind the 18th green at the ANA Inspiration during a Golf Channel broadcast. (Beth Ann Nichols/Golfweek)

“I definitely thought to utilize the back and the backboard,” said Lee after her victory dip. “When I had practice rounds, I had practiced that shot, so it was a definite for me to use the space there.”

Golf fans can’t blame Lee, but they can blame the LPGA and tournament organizers for constructing a wall that’s even bigger and closer to the green than the usual grandstand when there were plenty of other ways available to give ANA the attention it deserves.

It’s a wonderful thing, carrying on sponsorship duties and providing an opportunity for play during a global pandemic.

Yet the wall created unnecessary controversy. It wasn’t easy to accept an obstruction on an island green even with seats there for important guests. But we did because someone has the pay the bills, and on the LPGA title sponsors are vital at the majors.

Take out the seats and the guests though, and it simply didn’t make sense.

Brooke Henderson’s second shot on the 72^nd hole came in so hot it went underneath the wall and got stuck. Her sister/caddie Brittany crawled inside the blue mesh to retrieve the ball as Katherine Kirk worked out how she might hit a shot from the ledge of Poppie’s Pond, where it says “Do not dive. Do not step.”

“That’s closest to the hole from the diving board today,” joked Golf Channel’s Jerry Foltz after Kirk managed to not only hit a nifty little shot, but also stay dry.

Judy Rankin tried to hold back about the wall throughout the week on the broadcast only to ultimately say what most were thinking as the wall took center stage.

“The fact is, it has been way too artificial,” said Rankin. “There was no real reason for it to be there. There were no spectators, or clients or anything like that. And it has affected play way too much.”

On the heels of the Sophia Popov snub, this was another bad look for the tour.

Tune in for the big finish! Nelly Korda! Brooke Henderson! Lexi Thompson!

Fans who don’t normally watch the LPGA might have flipped over to Golf Channel for the conclusion, only to become instantly perplexed by the presence of a wall.

The LPGA can make it right in 2021, by taking the finishing hole back to its roots as an island green and eliminate the grandstands. At the very least, move them as far out of play as possible and downsize. Make the closing par 5 a true championship test, one that puts risk back into the equation.

This week felt similar to 2007 when the Women’s British Open was first contested at the Old Course, and they played the Road Hole as a par 5 and it ranked the easiest hole for the week. (Thankfully that was fixed in 2013.)

The depth of talent in the women’s game and quality of play has never been better. There’s plenty to showcase.

But sometimes the LPGA just can’t get out of its own way.

[lawrence-related id=778065857]

Our Steve DiMeglio hooked a shot through Dinah Shore’s sliding glass door. And then …

It sliding glass door that led to her backyard patio on the Dinah Shore Course at Mission Hills Country Club in Rancho Mirage, California.

My first contact with Dinah Shore was actually with her window.

I broke it.

Of course it wasn’t any little old window. No, no, no. Of course not. It was a floor-to-ceiling sliding glass door that led to her backyard patio in the shadow of the ninth hole of what is now known as the Dinah Shore Tournament Course at Mission Hills Country Club in Rancho Mirage, California.

It was the day after Juli Inkster won the 1989 Nabisco Dinah Shore, the annual first major of the year for the LPGA Tour. Media members were allowed to play the course that Monday, with the same pin placements as the best women players in the world faced in the final round.

All was well – the sun was bright, the winds low, the team playing well with birdies galore through eight holes. And then we stood in the middle of the fairway of the dogleg, par-5 ninth with a chance to reach the green in two.

My Titleist 3 didn’t reach the green in two. Instead, my 3-wood – yes, it was a wood back then – sent the ball wildly hooking away from the intended target and then crashing through the sliding glass door.

Golfweek’s Steve DiMeglio and Dinah Shore.

Thank heavens Dinah wasn’t with someone in the kitchen.

I was told by the appropriate people that insurance would take care of the damage and Dinah would never find out who unleashed the glass-breaking missile.

But a year later, someone pointed me out to Dinah as she was playing in a charity event and told her I was the one who shattered her sliding glass door.

Television personality Dinah Shore takes a practice swing in preparation for her hostess role for the Colgate Winners Circle golf tournament in Palm Springs, Calif. in March, 1972. (AP Photo)

“It was you? You’re the one?” she said in the most livid voice she could muster that belied all her Southern charm. “So you’re the one who broke my window and made a clean getaway.”

I was a bit on edge. Then she smiled and lit up the world.

I got a hug instead of a bill and a slap upside my head.

“So glad to meet you,” she said.

There I was, two years into my first job out of college, the prep writer for The Desert Sun in Palm Springs, joking around with Dinah. Gaining experience and paying my dues at a jarringly low salary was happily augmented by a workload that included coverage of a PGA Tour event, a major on the LPGA Tour, a senior tour golf event, one of the best professional tennis tournaments in the world, the Don Drysdale Hall of Fame Classic, the NFL’s Fastest Man contest, the Pepsi All-Star Softball Game, The Skins Game and 13 glorious days when the California Angels played spring training games at Palm Springs Stadium.

Cover a high school varsity boys and girls basketball doubleheader one night, head to the Bob Hope Chrysler Classic the next morning. Write up a high school tennis match one evening, write a story on Andre Agassi or Martina Navratilova the next day. Chronicle a high school track meet, watch the NFL’s fastest men sprint the following afternoon.

Helen Alfredsson and Dina Shore hold up the trophy at the 1993 Dinah Shore Classic. Stephen Dunn/ALLSPORT

Break Dinah’s window, end up playing 18 with her.

Not a bad gig indeed. A lot of pinch-me moments, the best without question a round with Dinah. Ahead of the 1991 Nabisco Dinah Shore, I asked the main media official for the tournament if I could play with Dinah and then write a story on her for the bonus section the paper produced each year.

“Dinah says of course,” I later heard.

So, two years after reducing her sliding glass door to rubble, I was hitting balls on the practice range at MHCC ahead of my 18 with Dinah. And I waited. And waited. And waited. Then I was told our tee time was bumped 45 minutes. Didn’t ask why. Just kept hitting balls into the horizon.

Just when I thought Dinah wasn’t going to be able to play for whatever reason, she emerged on the range and began to say hello to every one of the 40 or so golfers.

HOLLYWOOD, CA – MAY 6, 1959: Actress Dinah Shore poses at the Academy of Television Arts & Sciences 11th Annual Emmy Awards held at the Moulin Rouge on May 6, 1959 in Hollywood, California. (Photo by TVA/PictureGroup/Invision for the Academy of Television Arts & Sciences/AP Images)

“I’m so sorry, Steve, I was on the phone with Kirk Douglas,” she said.

Not often you’re put on hold by Spartacus.

Dinah hit a few balls, the smallest bucket you can imagine.

“Steve, want to go see my new window?” she said and then laughed. “Let’s go.”

And off we went to the Arnold Palmer Course adjacent to the course that bears her name and one that presents a strong but fair challenge full of water hazards, deep bunkers and testing greens.

Dinah was playing to a 23 then and you quickly learned you want her on your side in a match. And you never – repeat – never put up money against her in a putting contest. What she lacked in power – she was 73 – she made up for with command of the shortest club in her bag.

She played quickly with a smile that never left her face. And the silence of the serene game was gladly broken when she started singing, which was about on every hole. Soothing tunes were steady, good shots aplenty, many laughs constant.

I can still hear her say, “Good shot, Steve,” or “Nice putt, Steve.” I returned in kind, but she’d say, “You’re just being polite.” That was a phrase not often spoken to me, but it made me smile.

We’d play a few holes and then drive the cart to a shady spot to talk all things Dinah. She spoke with delight about the Grand Ole Opry, cooking, her stardom on television for four decades, her days as a competitive swimmer and a member of the fencing team at Vanderbilt University, her days entertaining the troops on USO tours to Europe. It was a majestic career that spanned more than 50 years and was marked by her abundant popularity, 10 Emmy Awards, nine gold records, a Golden Glove, a Peabody Award.

And she went on and on about her great love in life – singing – and how her passion – golf – was driving her batty.

“Golf is like a lousy lover,” she said. “Like someone who is never there when you need him. And just when you least expect it, your lover shows up and makes you feel like heaven on earth. But just when you think the world is perfect and life is wonderful, your lover takes the next bus out of town.”

She hopped aboard the golf bus and embraced the game from the get-go when Colgate president David Foster talked her into putting her name on a women’s golf tournament in 1972.

At 52, Dinah traded in her tennis racket for golf clubs. And the golf bug bit hard.

1990: Dinah Shore looks on during the Los Angeles Open at the Riviera Country Club in Los Angeles, California. Mandatory Credit: Ken Levine /Allsport

She said she didn’t want to embarrass herself so she did what she could to learn the game and play it well without ignoring all her other callings. And she sure did play, eagerly becoming a regular participant in pro-ams – she played about 10-12 a year – as well as becoming the first woman member of Hillcrest Country Club on the west side of Los Angles.

“I’m not good. I hit the ball and then I giggle so I won’t cry,” she said, underplaying her ability.

When talk turned to the tournament, she dismissed her enormous influence that elevated the women’s game.

“Oh, Steve, it was the players,” she said.

But it was Dinah who opened a massive door. Her Hollywood connections and glamour sparked the LPGA Tour to new heights and brought forth a much-needed spotlight when network TV coverage was a precious commodity. When the Colgate-Dinah Shore Winners Circle Tournament made its debut in 1972, Jane Blalock won and received a check for $20,000, which was $15,000 more than any other LPGA tournament winner was awarded that year.

“Sometimes in sports there is a defining moment,” Blalock told the Los Angeles Times in 2011. “That moment for us was 40 years ago.”

As the years passed, the tournament grew in stature and Dinah never shied from one of her most important leading roles.

“The tournament will always be The Dinah as far as I’m concerned,” said Dottie Pepper, the lead on-course analyst for CBS golf coverage. Among her 17 LPGA Tour titles were her major triumphs in The Dinah in 1992 and 1999.

“Dinah put the LPGA on the Hollywood and TV stage at the most needed time,” Pepper said. “She provided the theater for our first major championship of the year. Exposure to a world-wide audience that we could only dream about at the time. She genuinely loved the game, especially the women’s game, and we should all be forever grateful.”

1994: Dinah Shore was a singer, noted TV celebrity and long-time friend of the LPGA. She founded the California tournament that eventually became the ANA Inspiration, one of the LPGA Tour’s five majors.

Dinah, who passed away in her Beverly Hills home in 1994, is honored with plaques in the World Golf Hall of Fame and the Television Academy Hall of Fame. Worthy tributes indeed.

But my lasting memory will be the 18 holes I played with her – and the time spent at the 19^th hole talking and laughing the time away. I’ve played Augusta National twice, Cypress Point twice, Riv, Oakmont, Merion, Olympic, Hoylake, Pebble and Spyglass. The Old Course at the Home of Golf and Pinehurst No. 2 in the Cradle of American Golf. The Stadium Course at PGA West, the Stadium Course at TPC Sawgrass. Cherry Hills, Oak Hill and Hillcrest.

But my best day and the most fun I’ve ever had on a golf course without question was with Dinah, the 18 holes that spanned nearly six hours – we didn’t slow play nor hold anyone up as the conversations timed out longer than the actual playing of the round. I can still hear her singing, still see her smiling, still picture her draining a putt.

The 18 with Dinah surpassed even the day I made my lone hole-in-one, which came a year later in the Dinah Shore Media Day tournament, at the famous 17^th hole on the Dinah Shore Tournament Course.

Dinah awarded me a marble clock that year as our team was victorious. But the gift of her company the year prior will forever be the leader in the clubhouse of memories playing the wonderful game of golf.