The LPGA Drive On Championship is a series of women's professional golf tournaments on the
LPGA Tour
The Ladies Professional Golf Association (LPGA) is an American organization for female golfers. The organization is headquartered at the LPGA International in Daytona Beach, Florida, and is best known for running the LPGA Tour, a series of week ...
created after several tournaments were cancelled as a result of the
COVID-19 pandemic
The COVID-19 pandemic, also known as the coronavirus pandemic, is an ongoing global pandemic of coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) caused by severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2). The novel virus was first identi ...
. Each tournament uses the tour's "Drive On" slogan to support the resilience of the tour.
Ohio
The Ohio tournament was held in July 2020 as the LPGA Tour's first tournament since the tour was halted in February 2020.
The Ohio tournament was hosted at the
Inverness Club in
Toledo, Ohio
Toledo ( ) is a city in and the county seat of Lucas County, Ohio, United States. A major Midwestern United States port city, Toledo is the fourth-most populous city in the state of Ohio, after Columbus, Cleveland, and Cincinnati, and according ...
. The tournament did not have spectators nor a pro-am, and it featured a field of 144 players. Although lacking a title sponsor, the players competed for a $1 million purse, primarily funded by sponsors of cancelled tournaments.
Danielle Kang
Danielle Grace Kang (born October 20, 1992) is an American professional golfer currently playing on the LPGA Tour. As an amateur, she won the U.S. Women's Amateur twice, in 2010 and 2011. She won the 2017 KPMG Women's PGA Championship, an LPG ...
won the inaugural event by one stoke over
Céline Boutier.
Georgia
The Georgia tournament was announced on September 15, 2020, as the LPGA replaced all three stops (Korea, Taiwan, Japan) on the Asian Swing that were called off by further pandemic restrictions.
The Georgia tournament was hosted at the Reynolds
Lake Oconee
Lake Oconee is a reservoir in central Georgia, United States, on the Oconee River near Greensboro and Eatonton. It was created in 1979 when Georgia Power completed the construction of the Wallace Dam on the Oconee River.
Lake Oconee runs throug ...
Great Waters Course in
Greensboro, Georgia
Greensboro is a town in and the county seat of Greene County, Georgia, United States. Its population was 3,648 as of the 2020 census. The city is located approximately halfway between Atlanta and Augusta on Interstate 20.
History
Greensboro was ...
, located halfway between Augusta and Atlanta, on a
Jack Nicklaus-designed course that opened in 1992 and was refurbished in 2019.
The tournament used a full field of 144 players, competing for a $1.3 million purse.
Ally McDonald won her first career tournament by one stroke over Danielle Kang, who was going for the "Drive On Championship" double.
Florida
The first Florida tournament was held in March 2021 at the Golden Ocala Golf Club in
Ocala, Florida.
Austin Ernst won by five strokes over
Jennifer Kupcho
Jennifer Anne Kupcho (born May 14, 1997) is an American professional golfer.
Amateur career
As a junior at Wake Forest University, she was named the winner of the Honda Sports Award for golf. As a senior, Kupcho won the inaugural Augusta Nationa ...
. In February 2022 at Crown Colony Golf Club in
Fort Myers, Florida,
Leona Maguire
Leona Maguire (born 30 November 1994) is an Irish professional golfer.
She was ranked 1st in the world on the women's World Amateur Golf Ranking from May 2015 until May 2016 and then from August 2016 until February 2018. Maguire's 135 weeks a ...
became the first Irish winner on the LPGA tour, finishing 3 strokes clear of
Lexi Thompson.
Winners
References
External links
Coverage on LPGA Tour's official site– Ohio
Coverage on LPGA Tour's official site– Georgia
Coverage on LPGA Tour's official site– Florida
{{LPGA Tour
LPGA Tour events
Golf in Ohio
Golf in Georgia (U.S. state)
Golf in Florida
Sports competitions in Ohio
Sports competitions in Georgia (U.S. state)
Sports competitions in Florida
Recurring sporting events established in 2020
2020 establishments in Ohio