The Legends of the LPGA, formerly known as the Women's Senior Golf Tour (2000–2005) and the Legends Tour (2006–2021), is a

professional golf tour Professional golf tours are the means by which otherwise unconnected professional golf tournaments are organised into a regular schedule. There are separate tours for men and women; most are based in a specific geographical region, although some to ...

for women aged 45 and older. It is based in the

United States The United States of America (U.S.A. or USA), commonly known as the United States (U.S. or US) or America, is a country primarily located in North America. It consists of 50 states, a federal district, five major unincorporated territorie ...

and is the official senior tour of 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 weekl ...

. The tour was founded in 2000, and is intended to allow women to prolong their competitive golf careers on the model of the

PGA Tour Champions PGA Tour Champions (formerly the Senior PGA Tour and the Champions Tour) is a men's professional senior golf tour, administered as a branch of the PGA Tour. History and format The Senior PGA Championship, founded in 1937, was for many years ...

for men.

History

Background

From 1996 to 2000, retired LPGA golfer

Jane Blalock Barbara Jane Blalock (born September 19, 1945) is an American business executive and retired professional golfer. After winning several New England golf tournaments in her youth, Blalock joined the LPGA Tour as a professional in 1969, being name ...

worked to organize a new senior golf tour for older and often retired LPGA golfers. After receiving support from 24 other founding members and a 3-year sponsorship program from the Green Bay Chamber of Commerce, The Women's Senior Golf Tour debuted in August 2000 in

Green Bay, Wisconsin Green Bay is a city in the U.S. state of Wisconsin. The county seat of Brown County, it is at the head of Green Bay (known locally as "the bay of Green Bay"), a sub-basin of Lake Michigan, at the mouth of the Fox River. It is above sea lev ...

with a minimum age of 43 and a $500,000 purse, with $75,000 going to the winner. Around 30,000 people attended over three days. The senior tour paid a fee to the LPGA for permission to involve active LPGA players, but otherwise remained independent.

Founding

The Women's Senior Golf Tour was the official senior tour of the LPGA in 2001 and was later called the Legends Tour. Initially it grew from two annual events to 11 events by 2013. Sixteen events were held in the first six years of operation between 2001 and 2006. In addition a team event, the annual

Handa Cup The Handa Cup is a series of senior women's golf matches between a United States team and a World Team drawn from players from the rest of the world. It was founded in 2006 and is an event on the LPGA Legends Tour. Since 2013 it has been officially ...

pitting LPGA Legends players from the United States against LPGA Legends players from the rest of the world, was introduced in 2006. It is The Legends Tour's version of the

Solheim Cup The Solheim Cup is a biennial golf tournament for professional women golfers contested by teams representing Europe and the United States. It is named after the Norwegian-American golf club manufacturer Karsten Solheim, who was a driving force beh ...

. From 2007 to 2013, 45 tournaments were held.

Recent years

2017 File:2017 Events Collage V2.png, From top left, clockwise: The War Against ISIS at the Battle of Mosul (2016-2017); aftermath of the Manchester Arena bombing; The Solar eclipse of August 21, 2017 ("Great American Eclipse"); North Korea tests a ser ...

, the

Senior LPGA Championship The Senior LPGA Championship is a women's professional golf tournament on the Legends Tour. It began in 2017 and the first event was played at The Pete Dye Course in French Lick, Indiana. The minimum age is 45. Despite the 2015 announcement by ...

was inaugurated, intended to take place every year. Despite the 2015 announcement by the

United States Golf Association The United States Golf Association (USGA) is the United States national association of golf courses, clubs and facilities and the governing body of golf for the U.S. and Mexico. Together with The R&A, the USGA produces and interprets the rules ...

that a

U.S. Senior Women's Open The U.S. Senior Women's Open is one of fourteen U.S. national golf championships organized by the United States Golf Association. The newest USGA championship, it is open to women whose 50th birthday falls on or before the first day of competitio ...

would be added from 2018, for competitors aged 50 or over, the eligibility for the tour remained to be for female golfers age 45 and older. The

and the

are considered to constitute the

senior women's major golf championships Women's professional senior golf is for female players aged 45 or 50 and above. The leading women's senior tour is the U.S.-based Legends Tour, which was founded in 2000. It has established a roster of two major championships. On the Legends Tour, ...

. On August 5, 2021, the Legends Tour announced its new name, The Legends of the LPGA.

References

External links