For the fourth time this season, it’s major championship week on the LPGA Tour.
This week, the best in professional women’s golf head abroad to Woburn Golf & Country Club in Milton Keynes, England, for the spectacle that is the RICOH Women’s British Open. The fourth of the Tour’s five majors, the $3 million event is one of the most beloved and revered events on the LPGA’s schedule, and players will be excited to battle for the title of major champion.
Defending champion Inbee Park is out with an injury, but world No. 1 Lydia Ko – already a four-time winner this year – and a bevvy of major and tournament champions make up one of the Tour’s most competitive fields of the season. Lexi Thompson, Stacy Lewis, Cristie Kerr and Gerina Piller will be there fresh off a thrilling triumph in the second UL International Crown match play event on Sunday.
Fellow UL International Crown participants, who also have won LPGA events in 2016, teeing it up this week include Japan’s Haru Nomura, Republic of Korea’s Sei Young Kim, Australia’s Minjee Lee and Thailand’s Ariya Jutanugarn. Two-time 2016 tournament winners Ha Na Jang and Brooke Henderson, as well as U.S. Women’s Open champion Brittany Lang, are also in England this week to chase down the winner’s share of the prize.
Mo Martin (2014), Lewis (2013), Jiyai Shin (2012, 2008), Yani Tseng (2010-11), Catriona Matthew (2009) and Karrie Webb (2002) are past RICOH Women’s British Open champions in this year’s field, and they would love to add another crown to their career resumes.
Sadly, this year’s RICOH Women’s British Open will be the first without visionary and LPGA friend Sir Richard George, a man who was instrumental in the tournament becoming an LPGA major in 2001. Sir Richard, who turned the Weetabix company into a major British brand and longtime LPGA sponsor, passed away on March 23 at the age of 71.
“Sir Richard was a very special guy, and his importance to the growth of the LPGA simply cannot be overstated,” LPGA Commissioner Emeritus Charlie Mechem said. “He approached me to ask what it would take for the Women’s British Open to be a major. I told him that the purse would have to be raised substantially and that we would have to have a course rotation like the men’s Open Championship.
“He delivered in spades on both counts and, as a result, the Women’s British Open is played on some of the greatest courses in the world and with solid prize money.”
Woburn Golf & Country Club has a storied history in the annals of women’s professional golf. It returns as host site for the prestigious event for the first time as a major, as the Tour’s last visit to the iconic club was in 1999, two years before it gained major championship status.
Sherri Steinhauer won that year, and the event was held at Woburn in 1994 (Liselotte Neumann), 1995 (Karrie Webb) and 1996 (Emilee Klein) as a non-major LPGA event. Before that, Woburn was a major on the Ladies European Tour in 1993 (Karen Lunn), 1992 (Patty Sheehan), 1991 (Penny Grice-Whittaker), 1990 (Helen Alfredsson) and 1984 (Ayako Okamoto).
Thanks to the efforts of Sir Richard and more dedicated people like him, the event is now one of the crown jewels of the LPGA Tour.
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