After a three-week hiatus for the Solheim Cup, the LPGA Tour returns to the U.S. for the third edition of the Indy Women in Tech Championship driven by Group1001. Defending champion and Rolex Rankings No. 2 Sung Hyun Park and 2017 champion World No. 3 Lexi Thompson lead the field of 132 players who hope to take a victory lap around the famed Indianapolis Motor Speedway.
In 2018, Sung Hyun Park’s goal was to win three times. She achieved that goal with her victory at the Indy Women in Tech Championship, where she drained a 15-footer for birdie on the first playoff hole to defeat Lizette Salas. Park carded rounds of 68-63-66-68 for her career-best 72-hole total on Tour.
The IWiT Championship and the upcoming Volunteers of America Classic are the last domestic events for the LPGA before the season-ending CME Group Tour Championship in Naples, Fla. in November. After Texas, the Tour heads to Asia for four weeks, kicked off at the Buick LPGA Shanghai.
WHAT YOU NEED TO KNOW ABOUT THE INDY WOMEN IN TECH CHAMPIONSHIP
This is the third playing of the Indy Women in Tech Championship – the inaugural event in 2017 was played as a 54-hole event
In the first round of the 2018 IWiT Championship, Lizette Salas fired a 62 for the competitive course record at Brickyard Crossing Golf Course, which also matched Salas’ career low round
Traditional holes 7-10 at Brickyard Crossing Golf Course, which are located inside the 2.5-mile oval track, will be rerouted to become tournament holes 15-18 for the IWiT Championship
The IWiT Championship is the only LPGA Tour stop in Indiana; however, the third edition of the Senior LPGA Championship will be held Oct. 14-16 at The Pete Dye Course at French Lick Resort, one of two major championships for the Legends Tour. The Epson Tour makes two stops in Indiana, the Four Winds Invitational in South Bend and the Donald Ross Classic at French Lick Resort in French Lick
In keeping with tradition, the winner of the Indy Women in Tech Championship will take part in the same celebration as those who have won the Indianapolis 500 at the Speedway. The winner will not only kiss the bricks, but also douse herself in milk and take a victory lap.
SOLHEIM CUP STARS READY FOR NEXT CHALLENGE
Rising Team Europe star Bronte Law returns to competition this week in Indianapolis, after the Englishwoman went 1-1-2 in her first Solheim Cup appearance. Law delivered a clutch singles win on Sunday to put Suzann Pettersen in a position to win the Cup.
Law is still basking in the memories of the week and the celebration that followed bringing Europe its first win since 2013. “It's still surreal really,” Law said on Tuesday.
“To be part of such an historic moment like that and see Suzann, someone who I've looked up to for so long from a very young age, achieve that and just almost the pinnacle of her career, that moment, and for her to then call it a day was just incredible. She deserves it, she deserves all the credit that she gets,” said Law. “She's an incredible athlete and someone that I think a lot of us owe her a lot of thanks.”
With the Solheim Cup in the rear-view window, Law said she set new goals for the remainder of the 2019 season.
“I would really love to have another win under my belt,” Law said. “I think obviously I'm playing good golf, I'm confident right now. So it seems like it's not that far, you know, a stretch of the imagination to do that. Obviously we have CME coming up, which is effectively a major now with the purse being so big. I would really like to put in a good performance.”
On the other side of the draw, Team USA member Marina Alex, who also went 1-1-2 in her debut, is still smiling this week after the Solheim Cup rush. “The week was unbelievable, definitely my best experience golfing ever,” she said.
Alex thinks the Solheim Cup can provide a needed boost in her individual game for the rest of the season.
“I think there was a gear in there that I didn't really know that I had. Juli [Inkster] had made reference to that with all of us. She said Solheim can bring out in players things that you didn't know you had in you, and that is definitely true,” said Alex. “I think it must be the intensity of the event and just, you know, there's so many fans and you're playing for your country and you're playing for other people that you kind of just dig a little bit deeper and you find golf in you that you didn't know was there, and that's a great thing. I know that it's in there and hopefully that appears at another point in time when it matters.”
RACE TO THE CME GLOBE UPDATE
Heading into the 26th week of the 2019 Race to the CME Globe, four-time 2019 winner and two-time 2019 major champion Jin Young Ko holds a commanding lead with 3,988 points. With 10 top-10 finishes and two wins this season, Brooke Henderson is in second with 2,553. 2019 U.S. Women’s Open Champion Jeongeun Lee6 is in third with 2,461 points followed by Rolex Rankings No. 2 Sung Hyun Park with 2,388 points.
The 2019 season brings a fresh face to the Race to the CME Globe. LPGA Members will accumulate points at each official LPGA Tour event leading up to the CME Group Tour Championship. The top 60 points earners and ties will then earn a spot in the CME Group Tour Championship, with the entire field competing for the $5 million purse and the $1.5 million winner’s check, the largest single prize in the history of women’s golf.
TOM SMITH NOMINATED FOR AXA LPGA VOLUNTEER SERVICE AWARD
The AXA LPGA Volunteer Service Award is a program launched in 2018 to recognize exemplary volunteers at each LPGA tournament. This week’s award recipient is Tom Smith, who has volunteered since the inaugural Indy Women in Tech Championship as the Carts and Shuttles Chairman.
After the 2019 season, the name of one AXA LPGA Volunteer Award recipient will be drawn in a random selection. That winning volunteer’s tournament charity will be awarded $10,000 on behalf of AXA. The 2019 Indy Women in Tech Championship driven by Group1001 supports Indy Women in Tech Foundation.
For more information on the AXA LPGA Volunteer Service Award, visit: http://www.lpga.com/tournaments/axa-lpga-volunteer-service-award.
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