She may not have realized it at the time, but when Stacy Lewis won the Walmart NW Arkansas Championship Presented by P&G last year, she was accomplishing a rarity on the LPGA Tour.
The University of Arkansas graduate was entering rarified air as she sank her final putt on the 72nd hole at Pinnacle Country Club in Rogers, Ark., and joined a list of players who have won an LPGA event in the same state in which they attended college. Lewis was the first player to do that since Lorena Ochoa – who attended the University of Arizona – won the 2008 Safeway International Presented by Coca-Cola at Superstition Mountain, Ariz.
Lewis and Ochoa are the only Tour players to accomplish the feat in the last 10 years, with Ochoa doing it twice. The Hall of Famer also won the Safeway International Presented by Coca-Cola in 2007.
The phenomenon was a bit more prevalent when you go back another 10 years.
Hall of Famer Annika Sorenstam – also a University of Arizona product – won the same event at Superstition Mountain in 2004 and 2005 and racked up the most college-state victories through the years. Five of Sorenstam’s 72 career LPGA wins came in Arizona, with the 2000 and 2001 Welch’s/Circle K Championships in Tucson and the 2001 Standard Register PING in Phoenix rounding out the list.
Former Ohio State University star Meg Mallon joined the club in 1998 after winning the Star Bank LPGA Classic in Beaver Creek, Ohio, and added the 2004 Jamie Farr Owens Corning Classic Presented by Kroger in Sylvania, Ohio, six years later. Christina Kim, who attended De Anza Community College in Cupertino, Calif., earned a big Cali win the same season at the 2004 Longs Drugs Challenge in Auburn, Calif.
In addition, Nancy Scranton, who attended Florida State University, won the 2000 Subaru Memorial of Naples in Florida, Hall of Famer Juli Inkster of San Jose State University won the Longs Drugs Challenge in Lincoln, Calif., in 1999 and 2000 and the Samsung World Championship in Vallejo, Calif., in 2000, and Rosie Jones of Ohio State University won the 1999 Firstar LPGA Classic in Beavercreek, Ohio. Not to be outdone, Pat Hurst, another San Jose State University product like Inkster, won a major – the 1998 Nabisco Dinah Shore – in Rancho Mirage, Calif., in her college state, following in the footsteps of former San Jose State star Patty Sheehan, who won the same event two years earlier.
Two main factors have kept the numbers low in the last decade. First, there have been a plethora of players – like Lydia Ko and Lexi Thompson – who have skipped the college ranks to turn pro at young ages, and secondly, a high number of tournament winners have been international players who grew up on foreign soil.
Throw in the fact that nearly a third of the Tour’s events have been conducted outside the United States, and the window of opportunity narrows even more. But that’s not to say college-state victories are a thing of the past.
Several players, including Stanford’s Michelle Wie, Arizona State’s Anna Nordqvist and Texas Christian’s Angela Stanford, have chances to add to their names to the list in the coming months and years. The LPGA has remaining events in Pennsylvania, Ohio, Michigan, Oregon, Alabama and Florida in 2015, so another player could experience the thrill Lewis had a year ago.
Perhaps she will repeat again this year and give Razorbacks fans another reason to cheer. We will all know shortly.
)
)
)
)
