LAKE GENEVA, Wis., May 17, 2017 – There will be a California connection this week in Wisconsin when Tracy Hanson makes her Legends Tour debut at the Red Nose Day Walgreens Charity Championship.
The Legends Tour event will be staged Saturday and Sunday on the Gary Player Course at Geneva National Resort with a field of 54 LPGA legends competing for a $300,000 purse.
Hanson, who played on the LPGA Tour for 15 years, will join the Legends for the first time this week. She became eligible for The Legends Tour when she turned 45 last October.
But in addition to competing alongside fellow pros she has known for years, there will be a California connection by former players who competed collegiately at San Jose State University. LPGA Hall of Famers and former Spartans Juli Inkster and Patty Sheehan will headline that group.
Winner of 11 individual college tournaments while at San Jose State, Hanson played on the Juli Inkster Golf Scholarship while she was there. She was also teammates with Pat Hurst for two years, and was coached by then-assistant coach Dana Dormann, who also played collegiately at San Jose State before becoming the Spartans’ associate head coach.
All five former San Jose State alums are in this week’s tournament field.
“I’m excited about playing this week, but it’s also a little surreal because I haven’t played a lot of golf since retiring from the LPGA in 2009,” said Hanson, an Idaho native who now lives in Holland, Mich. “My expectation is really to just go have some fun and to enjoy the fact that I can be out there.”
That San Jose State connection followed Hanson to the LPGA, where she finished second to Hurst for honors as the LPGA’s top rookie in 1995. Hanson went on to record 16 top-10 finishes on the LPGA Tour with two runner-up finishes, including a playoff loss to Japan’s Hiromi Kobayashi at the 1998 Rainbow Foods LPGA Classic.
And while she always looked up to Inkster and Sheehan, she didn’t get to know them until their paths crossed on the LPGA Tour.
“When I showed up out there, we had something in common -- having played for the same college team,” said Hanson, a former four-time All-American who helped San Jose State win the 1992 NCAA Division I Team Championship.
“It wasn’t until I got on tour that I got to know and really admire them, especially Juli, who’s still playing on the LPGA,” added Hanson. “She’s like a machine.”
A number of other players with ties to the upper Midwest in this week’s tournament field include: Minnesotans Lisa Grimes, Marilyn Lovander and Michele Redman; Wisconsin native Martha Nause of Sheboygan, and current Madison (Wis.) resident Becky Iverson, originally from Gladstone, Mich.; Michigan natives Elaine Crosby and Cindy Figg-Currier; and Illinois natives Nancy Scranton and Nicole Jeray.
Hall of Fame members in the field will be: Pat Bradley, Laura Davies, Sandra Haynie, Juli Inkster, Betsy King, Patty Sheehan and Hollis Stacy.
Six Legends Tour players will compete for a separate purse in the Legends Honors Division for ages 63-over, including Legends Tour Hall of Fame members Jan Stephenson and Jane Blalock.
The championship’s official pro-am will be held Thursday, May 18, followed by practice rounds on Friday, May 19.
In addition, 10 players will compete for two spots in the tournament field in Friday’s qualifying tournament. That event will start at 10 a.m. on the Player Course.
Tee times begin at 8:30 a.m. for Saturday and Sunday’s tournament rounds.
Tickets are sold in area Walgreens stores for $10 per adult each day. Tickets at the gate on tournament days will be $15 per adult for each round. Kids 13 and under, as well as military with IDs, will be admitted free of charge.
Ticket price includes parking, grounds access, public clubhouse access, free samples at a vendor expo and prize giveaways. Parking is provided adjacent to the clubhouse.
Red Nose Day is an initiative designed to raise awareness and money to benefit children around the world through the power of entertainment. In an effort to lift kids out of poverty, the Red Nose Day project has raised more than $1 billion globally in the last 25 years.
All proceeds from the Red Nose Day Walgreens Charity Championship go to Red Nose Day. Funds raised by Red Nose Day help to ensure that children living in poverty are safe, healthy and educated – both here in America and around the world. Find out more at rednoseday.org.
Here is the current field for the Red Nose Day Walgreens Charity Championship:
- Ammaccapane, Danielle, Los Angeles, Calif.
- Anderson, Janet, Laveen, Ariz.
- Bartholomew, Jean, West Palm Beach, Fla.
- Blalock, Jane (LHD), Cambridge, Mass.
- Bradley, Pat, West Hyannisport, Mass.
- Bunkowsky, Barb, West Palm Beach, Fla.
- Burton, Brandie, LaVerne, Calif.
- Crafter, Jane, Phoenix, Ariz.
- Crosby, Elaine, Jackson, Mich.
- Davies, Laura, Surrey, England
- Dibos, Alicia, Greenwich, Conn.
- Dickinson, Judy (LHD), Tequesta, Fla.
- Doolan, Wendy, Lakeland, Fla.
- Dormann, Dana, Pleasantville, Calif.
- Dunn-Bohls, Moira, Tulsa, Okla.
- Figg-Currier, Cindy, Austin, Texas
- Finney, Allison, Bermuda Dunes, Calif.
- Geddes, Jane, New Canaan, Conn.
- Grimes, Lisa, Minneapolis, Minn.
- Hamlin, Shelley (LHD), Laveen, Ariz.
- Hanson, Tracy, Holland, Mich.
- Haynie, Sandra (LHD), Ft. Worth, Texas
- Hurst, Pat, Danville, Calif.
- Inkster, Juli, Los Altos, Calif.
- Iverson, Becky, Madison, Wis.
- Jeray, Nicole, Berwyn, Ill
- Johnson, Christa, Tucson, Ariz.
- Johnson, Trish, London, England
- Jones, Rosie, Hilton Head, S.C.
- Kane, Lorie, Prince Edward Island, Canada
- King, Betsy, Scottsdale, Ariz.
- Lidback, Jenny, Rio Verde, Ariz.
- Lovander, Marilyn, Punta Gorda, Fla.
- McGann, Michelle, N. Palm Beach, Fla.
- Moxness, Barb, Edina, Minn.
- Mucha, Barb, Orlando, Fla.
- Nause, Martha, Minneapolis, Minn.
- Neumann, Liselotte, Rancho Mirage, Calif.
- Palli, Anne Marie, Scottsdale, Ariz.
- Palmer, Sandra (LHD), Long Beach, Calif.
- Rarick, Cindy, Tucson, Ariz.
- Redman, Michele, Plymouth, Minn.
- Rinker, Laurie, Stuart, Fla.
- Scranton, Nancy, St. Augustine, Fla.
- Shanahan-Rowe, Laura, Hampton, N.H.
- Sheehan, Patty, Reno, Nev.
- Skinner, Val, Bay Head, N.J.
- Stacy, Hollis, Holmes Beach, Fla.
- Stephenson, Jan (LHD), Sydney, Australia
- Tschetter, Kris, Warrenton, Fla.
- West, Lori, Solana Beach, Calif.
- Young Robyn, Kathryn, Imperial Beach, Calif.
LHD – Legends Honors Division
)
)
)
)
