Tag: Legends Tour

Longtime LPGA stop in Toledo set to become dual event in 2025 for Epson Tour and Legends players

Former No. 1 Stacy Lewis, a Toledo native, will host the event.

For the past 40 years the LPGA has staged an event in Toledo, Ohio. That will change in 2025, as a new dual event featuring the Epson Tour and Legends of the LPGA comes to the northwest Ohio community, the tour has announced.

Former No. 1 Stacy Lewis, a Toledo native, will host the event.

“It’s an honor to lend my name to this event and keep professional golf and the LPGA in Toledo,” said Lewis, a 13-time winner on the LPGA and two-time Solheim Cup captain.

“Most importantly, this event will celebrate our past while preparing our future stars for the LPGA Tour. In addition to the 54-hole tournament, we plan on having events for the Legends players to spend time with the Epson Tour players to take advantage of a great mentorship opportunity. We hope the relationships extend far beyond the week of the tournament. The new event is also a fantastic opportunity for the wonderful golf fans in the Toledo area to come see some familiar faces from the past 40 years.”

Morgan Pressel
Morgan Pressel lines up a birdie putt on the first playoff hole during the final round of the Jamie Farr Owens Corning Classic at Highland Meadows Golf Club on July 5, 2009 in Sylvania, Ohio.

The Jamie Farr Toledo Classic first launched in 1984. Actor Jamie Farr of “M*A*S*H” fame had his named attached to the tournament until 2012. Seri Pak is a five-time winner of the event. Lydia Ko is one of three players who have won it twice. The event has been contested at Highland Meadows Golf Club since 1989 and has raised $14.3 million for 215 Toledo area children’s charities.

Thailand’s Chanettee Wannasaen won the 2024 edition.

A decade ago, the Chico’s Patty Berg Memorial brought members of the Epson Tour and Legends together for a similar event at Cypress Lake Country Club in Fort Myers, Florida.

“After 40 years, we thought it was time to try something different that will bring back many of the players that have competed in Toledo over the years along with the up-and-coming future stars of the LPGA,” said tournament director Judd Silverman, who founded the event back in 1984.

“We’re incredibly grateful to Stacy for agreeing to serve as tournament host. Her exceptional leadership has been on full display the past two years as captain of the U.S. Solheim Cup team. Her presence will be a huge benefit to the younger Epson Tour players.”

The field will feature 102 Epson Tour players and 42 LPGA Legends players who will play with their respective tours for the first two rounds. Following the 36-hole cut, for the final round, the tours will be integrated. An official name for the tournament and purses will be announced at a later date.

Health scare could end Colin Montgomerie’s 2024 season: ‘I’m not well’

“I have kept it quite quiet but I’m not well so we just keep going and we will get through to Sunday.”

When Colin Montgomerie talks, the golfing world listens. And even on those occasions when he didn’t talk, those glowering, seething silences would still speak volumes.

This week, the host of this week’s Staysure PGA Seniors Championship at Trump International Golf Links on the outskirts of Aberdeen made an eyebrow-raising and concerning admission.

After a 1-under 71 in the first round, Monty revealed that this over-50s showpiece may be his last event of 2024 due to ongoing health issues.

“I haven’t been well the last six months, I have been very poorly,” said the 61-year-old. “I have been taking a lot of time off. I have never done that in my life.

“I might take the rest of the year off. I need to, I’m not well. “Asked to elaborate, Montgomerie would only say that his problems were “internal.”

With the kind of enduring properties you’d get with a cast iron rivet, Monty continues to soldier on. On the face of it, a 71 over this exacting, unforgiving links wasn’t bad at all. Try telling Montgomerie that.

“Colin Montgomerie of old would have shot 66,” he said with the kind of yearning sigh that could’ve been accompanied by a wistful Perry Como song.

“Colin Montgomerie at 61 shoots 71. It is as simple as that. I maximize every score right now. That is what I do every round. It’s frustrating. You can’t score 67 when you have played 67-ish.”

He followed with a 73 in the second round of play to still sit inside the top 15.

If the tools of his long-standing trade do get shoved away at the end of this week, Montgomerie was asked about alternative pastimes. “How’s your gardening?” chirped one of the media men.

“It’s about to become an awful lot better,” chuckled Monty as he conjured up a delightful image of him edging the grass and gently tending his hardy Geraniums.

“There’s lots of grass to do, I can’t wait. I’ll be like Bob MacIntyre’s father. But me putting the clubs away in August? It’s unheard of.”

Angel Cabrera wins for the first time since release from prison

Cabrera had a nearly four-year absence from professional golf.

Angel Cabrera, released from prison 10 months ago, is back in the winner’s circle in professional golf.

Cabrera outlasted James Kingston 3 and 1 in the final of the Paul Lawrie Match Play at Hanbury Manor in Hertfordshire, England, on the Legends Tour.

The two-time major winner, Cabrera was jailed in Brazil and later extradited to Argentina on charges of assault, theft and legal intimidation of his former partner. He not only was convicted on those charges, but also on a separate 2022 assault charge on a another former partner. It all led to a nearly four-year absence from professional golf.

Cabrera competed on the PGA Tour Champions last week, his first round in the United States since September 2020.

Sunday, the 54-year-old was the last man standing in a field that featured five major champions. In the final, things were knotted up when Cabrera won the 15th and 16th holes to go 2 up with two to go.

Kingston conceded the match on the 17th hole after thinning one out of a bunker.

“I’m very happy. I worked hard in the last three months, very hard for this. Now, for this moment, I enjoyed it,” Cabrera said. “I had to concentrate and play hole-by-hole. I like to play match play, you know, we don’t play a lot of match play. I can say I feel very emotional now.”