The LPGA State Farm Classic was a women's professional golf tournament 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 weekl ...
. It was played annually from
1976
Events January
* January 3 – The International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights enters into force.
* January 5 – The Pol Pot regime proclaims a new constitution for Democratic Kampuchea.
* January 11 – The 1976 Phila ...
to
2011
File:2011 Events Collage.png, From top left, clockwise: a protester partaking in Occupy Wall Street heralds the beginning of the Occupy movement; protests against Libyan dictator Muammar Gaddafi, who was killed that October; a young man celebrate ...
in the
Springfield, Illinois
Springfield is the capital of the U.S. state of Illinois and the county seat and largest city of Sangamon County. The city's population was 114,394 at the 2020 census, which makes it the state's seventh most-populous city, the second largest o ...
metropolitan area. From 1976 through
2006
File:2006 Events Collage V1.png, From top left, clockwise: The 2006 Winter Olympics open in Turin; Twitter is founded and launched by Jack Dorsey; The Nintendo Wii is released; Montenegro 2006 Montenegrin independence referendum, votes to declare ...
, the tournament was held at The Rail Golf Course. In
2007
File:2007 Events Collage.png, From top left, clockwise: Steve Jobs unveils Apple's first iPhone; TAM Airlines Flight 3054 overruns a runway and crashes into a gas station, killing almost 200 people; Former Pakistani Prime Minister of Pakistan, Pr ...
it moved to Panther Creek Country Club.
Originally known as the Jerry Lewis Muscular Dystrophy Golf Classic, the tournament was underwritten solely by the owners of The Rail Golf Course for its first two years. A community-based not-for-profit organization took over the tournament in 1978.
State Farm Insurance
State Farm Insurance is a large group of mutual insurance companies throughout the United States with corporate headquarters in Bloomington, Illinois.
Overview
State Farm is the largest property and casualty insurance provider, and the lar ...
became the title sponsor in 1993. From 1980 until cancellation in 2011, over $2.5 million was contributed from tournament proceeds to medical and children's charities.
On December 9, 2011, it was announced the tournament was being cancelled due to organizers failing to find a new sponsor. It had been announced earlier in the year that State Farm would be dropping its sponsorship after 2011.
State Farm dropping event sponsorship
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Tournament names through the years:
*1976: Jerry Lewis Muscular Dystrophy Classic
*1977: Rail Muscular Dystrophy Classic
*1978–1992: Rail Charity (Golf) Classic
*1993–2000: State Farm Rail Classic
*2001–2006: State Farm Classic
*2007–2011: LPGA State Farm Classic
Winners
* Championship won in sudden-death playoff.
*1976 and 1981–2000 — 54-hole tournament
*1977–1980 and 2001–2011 — 72-hole tournament, although the tournament in 2003 was shortened to 54 holes due to rain.
Tournament records
References
External links
Official website
Coverage on LPGA Tour's official website
Tournament results at Golfobserver.com
Panther Creek Country Club
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Former LPGA Tour events
Golf in Illinois
Sports in Springfield, Illinois
State Farm
Recurring sporting events established in 1976
Recurring sporting events disestablished in 2011
1976 establishments in Illinois
2011 disestablishments in Illinois
Jerry Lewis
History of women in Illinois