The LPGA Tour heads north of the border this week for the 23rd event of the season, and second event in Canada in 2017, the Canadian Pacific (CP) Women’s Open.
The tournament takes place in Ottawa, Ontario, Canada – the Nation’s Capital – at the Ottawa Hunt & Golf Club. The last time the championship was in Ottawa was in 2008, also at the Ottawa Hunt, and it was Katherine Kirk (a LPGA Tour winner in 2017), who captured the title.
Here is everything you need to know about the field coming to Canada this week.
Defending Champs Return
The CP Women’s Open will feature 92 of the top 100 players on the LPGA Tour’s Official Money List, including 22 of the top 25, and the field is led this week by world No.1 So Yeon Ryu.
Defending champion Ariya Jutanugarn – who won in a playoff at the Manulife LPGA Classic earlier this year, will attempt to win the Canadian double – and three-time Canadian Open winner Lydia Ko join Ryu in the field to round out the betting favorites.
Joining Jutanugarn, Ryu, and Ko will be fellow defending CP Women’s Open champions Karrie Webb (1999), Laura Davies (1996), and Katherine Kirk (who won in 2008, the last time the tournament was contested at Ottawa Hunt), along with the trio of aforementioned American winners, Kerr (2006), Wie (2010), and Lincicome (2011).
Homecoming Queen
The last time the CP Canadian Women’s Open was played at the Ottawa Hunt & Golf Club, about 15 minutes from Parliament Hill in Canada’s Capital, Brooke Henderson was a small 10-year-old with big dreams, participating in a clinic with Morgan Pressel – her golf idol – who gave her a glove, a memento Henderson still has to this day.
Fast forward nearly a decade, and the 19-year-old Henderson is a one of the LPGA Tour’s best golfers. She’s been as high as second in the world (she’s currently eighth), and has won four times on Tour (including a major), which is double the amount of wins her childhood idol Pressel has.
Henderson will be the star of the show this week, as not only will she be a favorite to win, but also her hometown of Smiths Falls is less than an hour away from the course.
Management at Ottawa Hunt and Golf Club bestowed both her and her sister with honorary memberships in 2016, giving the Henderson sisters an opportunity to play and practice at the course, and, hopefully, give them a home-course advantage when the tournament gets started in a few weeks time.
The four-time LPGA Tour winner has already captured one title during the 2017 season, and would like nothing more than to add the Canadian Women’s Open trophy to her ever-growing case.
Solheim Stars
After the United States’ thrilling victory in Des Moines last week, 19 of the 24 competitors from the Solheim Cup are in the field in Canada’s capital city, including nine golfers from the victorious U.S. squad. Included in that group is a trio of former CP Women’s Open champions including Cristie Kerr (2006), Michelle Wie (2010), and Brittany Lincicome (2011). Stacy Lewis, Austin Ernst, Angel Yin, Brittany Lang, Paula Creamer, and Danielle Kang, a major champion this year, will join that threesome.
On the European side, 10 of the 12 competitors will head to Canada this week, including Suzann Pettersen, who unfortunately had to withdraw last week due to injury. She’ll be back playing this week, however, and will be joined by Anna Nordqvist, Carlota Ciganda, Karine Icher, Caroline Masson, Madelene Sagstrom, Emily Pedersen, Mel Reid, and Jodi Ewart Shadoff.
Canadian Contingent
The second of two events in Canada for 2017 – including the Manulife LPGA Classic earlier this year – will feature a robust group of local talent in the field this year, lead of course by Brooke Henderson.
Tour regulars including Alena Sharp, Maude-Aimee LeBlanc, the recently engaged Anne-Catherine Tanguay, Jennifer Ha, Augusta James, Samantha Richdale, and Lorie Kane will join Henderson in the field.
Brittany Marchand, who picked up her first Epson Tour victory earlier this month will also be in the field competing on a tournament exemption. Four members of Golf Canada’s National Amateur Team will also be competing, including Ottawa’s own Grace St. Germain.
Each Canadian will try to be come the first homegrown talent to capture an LPGA Tour event on home soil since Jocelyne Bourassa won La Canadienne in 1973.
)
)
)
)
