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. 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
Inverness Club is a private golf club in Toledo, Ohio.
Opened in 1903, the club has hosted four U.S. Opens, two PGA Championships, two NCAA Men's Championships, and the Solheim Cup. Inverness is the only club to have hosted the U.S. Open, U.S. ...
in
Toledo, Ohio. 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 LPGA ...
won the inaugural event by one stoke over
Céline Boutier
Céline Boutier (born 10 November 1993) is a French professional golfer.
Amateur career
Boutier won several international amateur events including the 2012 European Ladies Amateur Championship and the 2015 British Ladies Amateur. She played col ...
.
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 w ...
, 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
Ocala ( ) is a city in and the county seat of Marion County within the northern region of Florida, United States. As of the 2020 United States Census, the city's population was 63,591, making it the 54th most populated city in Florida.
Home to ...
.
Austin Ernst
Austin Ernst (born January 31, 1992) is an American professional golfer on the LPGA Tour.
Amateur career
Ernst was born in Greenville, South Carolina. She played two years for the LSU Tigers, where she won three events including the individual ...
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 Nation ...
. In February 2022 at Crown Colony Golf Club in
Fort Myers, Florida
Fort Myers (or Ft. Myers) is a city in southwestern Florida and the county seat and commercial center of Lee County, Florida, United States. The Census Bureau's Population Estimates Program calculated that the city's population was 92,245 in 20 ...
,
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
Alexis Noel Thompson (born February 10, 1995) is an American professional golfer who plays on the LPGA Tour. At age 12, she was the youngest golfer ever to qualify to play in the U.S. Women's Open. She turned professional in June 2010 at age 15 ...
.
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