Webb, a seven-time major winner, last played a full schedule on the LPGA in 2017.
Karrie Webb returns to LPGA competition next week for the first time in two years at the Gainbridge LPGA at Boca Rio in Boca Raton, Florida. The 47-year-old Aussie resides just north of Boca in Boyton Beach on the southeast coast of Florida. Webb, a seven-time major winner, last played a full schedule on the LPGA in 2017.
World No. 1 Nelly Korda headlines the field at Gainbridge, which she won in 2021 at Lake Nona. The event moved for one year due to the COVID-19 pandemic.
Sixteen of the top 25 players in the world will be at the second event of the season, including Lydia Ko (3), Inbee Park (4), Nasa Hataoka (6), Yuka Saso (8), Danielle Kang (10), Brooke Henderson (11), Lexi Thompson (12), Patty Tavatanakit (13), Ayaka Furue (14), Anna Nordqvist (16), Jeong Eun Lee6 (19), Atthaya Thitikul (20), Ally Ewing (21), Jessica Korda (22) and Ariya Jutanugarn (23).
The field of 120 will compete for a purse of $2 million.
“We are honored to have Karrie Webb joining the field and are excited to welcome the world’s best players back to Palm Beach County for the Gainbridge LPGA at Boca Rio,” said Lesley Baker, executive director for the Gainbridge LPGA at Boca Rio. “We are equally as excited to welcome back fans to the tournament this year and representing Southeast Florida on a global scale, both in person and to television audiences around the world.”
Lexi Thompson is only 25, but she ranks highly on the list of longest active streaks at the U.S. Women’s Open.
Karrie Webb’s record for the longest active streak at the U.S. Women’s Open will come to an end next week at 24. The seven-time major winner will miss a Women’s Open for the first time since her championship debut in 1996.
Paula Creamer, the 2010 USWO champ, won’t be at Champions Golf Club either, missing for the first time since 2003. Her streak will end at 17 consecutive appearances. This marks the final year of Creamer’s 10-year exemption into the championship after her stirring triumph at Oakmont.
China’s Shanshan Feng who, like Creamer, won’t compete on the LPGA at all this year, is skipping the USWO for the first time since 2007.
Here’s the craziest part of the USWO active streak list. After the 2020 championship, only three players will have longer active streaks than 25-year-old Lexi Thompson. Thompson qualified for her first U.S. Women’s Open in 2007 at the tender age of 12 and, amazingly, hasn’t missed one since.
Lexi Thompson watches her tee shot on the fifth hole during a practice round for the 2007 U.S. Women’s Open Championship at Pine Needles. (Copyright USGA/John Mummert)
Thompson posted a career-best T-2 at last year’s USWO at the Country Club of Charleston. She has four career top-10 finishes in the event.
After this year’s championship, Cristie Kerr, the 2007 USWO champion, will top the longest active streak category with 23 appearances. Texans Angela Stanford (now at 20) and Brittany Lang (now at 15) will round out the top three.
Karrie Webb is teeing it up at the Pelican Women’s Championship after a months-long LPGA hiatus. Next up? Mentorship responsibilities.
BELLEAIR, Florida – It’s a week of returns for several prominent players on the LPGA. While No. 1 Jin Young Ko’s 2020 debut might garner early-week headlines, fans will be pleased to see LPGA Hall of Famer Karrie Webb back in the mix for the first time since February. She tees off Thursday at 12:10 p.m. EST in the new Pelican Women’s Championship alongside Stacy Lewis and Sung Hyun Park.
Webb, who spent the long break at her home in South Florida, said she hadn’t planned to compete in many tournaments before the COVID-19 pandemic hit. The long break helped work out several “niggles” in her body, though a lingering neck issue will keep her from ever going back to a full-time schedule again. The wear-and-tear injury was brought on by the same repetitive motion day after day.
“If I wanted to live with a constant headache and play full-time,” she said, “then I’d be alright.”
Webb, a seven-time major winner, won’t be in the field at the 75th U.S. Women’s Open next month, her first time missing the championship since her debut in 1996. Webb has missed a handful of majors over the years, but in 2020 she won’t play in a single one. She’d hoped to go to the two tournaments in Scotland, which included the AIG Women’s British Open at Royal Troon, but said the long car rides to the host hotels would’ve made that too difficult on her body.
“I played eight events last year and four majors,” she said, “and you just can’t play that little amount and then show up at a major. I really struggled mentally more than anything, just making good decisions.
“Your game has to be sharp, but you have to be mentally sharp to hit away from flags. When you’re playing at the club with your mates, you just fire at the pins all day long, even if you don’t have that shot, still try to pull it off.”
Karrie Webb tees off during the second round of the 2019 U.S. Women’s Open at Country Club of Charleston. (Photo: Jasen Vinlove-USA TODAY Sports)
The Aussie legend won’t go so far as to say that she wouldn’t play in another LPGA major, but they’ll be limited going forward.
Webb watched plenty of LPGA golf on TV and was especially pleased to see good friend Mel Reid break through with her first victory. The pair played a lot of golf during the LPGA’s COVID-19 hiatus.
“I’ve been talking to her for the last few years,” said Webb, “just trying to get her to believe in her abilities. What everyone else sees.”
Webb takes her role as a mentor seriously. For the past dozen years she has invited the top Aussie players from her scholarship program to stay with her the week of a major championship. This year, with no majors to play in, Webb has instead invited Gabi Ruffels and Emily Mahar the opportunity to stay at her house the week before the U.S. Women’s Open.
“We’ll play some golf and go out on the boat,” she said.
Imagine if half the European Ryder Cup team showed to the Vic Open to support a mixed event co-sanctioned by the LPGA and European Tour.
A childhood friend recently retired from the military and moved back home to Florida with his wife. My husband and I had them over to watch football a couple times over the winter, and we talked about his combat tours and our years growing up together at the local muni. I’ve often thanked Craig for his service to our country. But until I sat down to write this column, I hadn’t thought to thank him for being cool with a girl crashing the party all those years ago.
Craig, Brad, Morgan, Chris, Kyle, Neil, the list goes on. I probably would’ve kept on playing basketball and quit golf if I had to practice on my own every day.
Twenty-five years later, the need hasn’t changed much. For the innovative ISPS Handa Vic Open to get to the next level, heavy-hitting male players need to step up and show support. It’s the only way the event can garner the worldwide attention it deserves. Imagine if half the European Ryder Cup team showed at 13th Beach Golf Links.
Former World No. 1 Stacy Lewis made her debut in the tournament last week. This marked the second year the Vic Open has been co-sanctioned by both the LPGA and European Tour. The women’s field was substantially stronger this year, despite the purse, $1.1 million, being the lowest on tour.
On the men’s side, Haotong Li, was the highest-ranked player at No. 79. Australia’s Geoff Ogilvy, an eight-time winner on the PGA Tour, was both the biggest draw and the most vocal.
“We should do this more often,” Ogilvy said. “The fact that this happens only once in a year is just nonsense.”
Bless him.
Geoff Ogilvy tees off during the second round of the ISPS Handa Vic Open at 13th Beach Golf Club. (Photo: Jack Thomas/Getty Images)
Lewis felt that most of the men in the field embraced the fact that women were there playing the same course at the same time for equal money. But it will take more male stars to grow the concept.
“We need top players,” said Lewis. “I know Geoff Ogilvy’s here and we need some top players to really step up and support this, especially if they have little girls, you know? Let’s give this opportunity to your daughter. That’s a lot of what motivates me now.”
To help encourage more players to make the trip, Lewis suggests cutting down the field from 144 players on both sides to 50 each for the men and women. Make it a limited-field event rather than a full field, with one cut for the last day. Everyone gets a check.
Guaranteed money will attract more top players to compete. And shrinking the field from 288 to 100 will cut costs for the title sponsor.
Ogilvy pointed to the success of back-to-back U.S. Opens at Pinehurst in 2014. Said he’d like to see concurrent Australian Opens at Royal Melbourne East, Royal Melbourne West, or Peninsula North, South.
“It really was successful at Pinehurst when Martin (Kaymer) won and Michelle Wie won the next week,” said Ogilvy. “We all loved it. … That’s the U.S. Open I watched the most of the girls because I was interested to see how they played the course that I just played.”
Karrie Webb would like to see Australia replicate the Vic Open model for men and women at all the country’s state opens. It would help female players especially feel more prepared before going to the next level.
“If we could create that sort of pathway here in Australia so that the guys and girls have some tournament experience before they go overseas,” said Webb, “I think it makes that next step or that jump in level that much more attainable than, ‘I just played the Australian Amateur and now I’m going to LPGA Q-School.’ ”
Innovation has reinvigorated the Vic Open. It will take more outside-the-box thinking to grow it further. Male voices like Ogilvy’s are needed to challenge the status quo. Or as he put it, to “open your eyes” to a world beyond the PGA Tour.
What if players turned down these outlandish appearance fees in Saudi Arabia and instead made a true grow-the-game trek to a tournament like the Vic Open? It’s not going to pad the bank account, but it certainly could be a catalyst for real change. Something meaningful.
Britain’s Meghan MacLaren, who recently told James Corrigan of The Telegraph that she wouldn’t be competing in the lucrative Saudi Ladies Championship because of how sport is being used in the Kingdom, penned a blog on equality following her play at the Vic Open.
“Equal treatment is where all the questions lie,” wrote MacLaren, “where all those with stakes in this game must look at themselves and ask if they can do better. Ask themselves what they would say when their daughter asks why playing golf may not be a viable career path when her brother didn’t have to wonder.”
Virginia Elena Carta, a thoughtful Italian who won the NCAA Championship at Duke and is continuing her studies at Cambridge before turning professional, posted a photo on twitter of her new college golf team.
She’s the only female.
When you talk about breaking barriers and you do it with the most amazing team (Cambridge Blues Golf Team) of supportive, kind and joyful guys. Thank you 😘 pic.twitter.com/gbt0u6Llkx
On weekends, Carta plays 72-hole matches from the back tees alongside the men against the members of various host clubs. The main event against Oxford will feature only a handful of players (note the guys wearing the light blue jackets) from the Cambridge team. Carta said only three or four women in the history of the match have played varsity for the Blues. The match dates back to the 1800s.
These 11 young men are helping Carta stay sharp before she heads back to the U.S. to try and compete on the LPGA.
“When you talk about breaking barriers and you do it with the most amazing team of supportive, kind and joyful guys,” Carta wrote. “Thank you.”
Check out the top 20 money winners in LPGA history.
The LPGA has two members of the $20 million club, four who have won at least $15 million in on-course earnings, 17 with $10 million or more, 70 who have earned at least $5 million and 270 who have surpassed the $1 million plateau.
Annika Sorenstam leads the way, accumulating $22,573,192 in career earnings. Sorenstam and Karrie Webb are the only two to surpass the $20 million mark.
Let’s take a closer look here at the top 20 of all-time.
This list is updated through the 2020 Gainbridge LPGA at Boca Rio.
