What’s in a name anyway, right? Plenty, it turns out. Before we get going, this tournament’s name is the Women’s PGA Championship, or the KPMG Women’s PGA Championship for sponsorship reasons. It is not called the LPGA Championship. It was up until 2014, when the LPGA announced the PGA of America was becoming a partner of the event, and that the tournament would be renamed the Women’s PGA Championship from 2015 – as a sister event to the men’s PGA Championship (in a similar manner to the U.S Women’s Open being a sister event to the men’s U.S Open).

REWIND 12 MONTHS
Ruoning Yin is the defending KPMG Women’s PGA Championship holder. The superstar from China birdied the 72nd hole to post a bogey-free final-round 67 and win at Baltsurol Golf Club for her maiden major title. Having started the day three strokes off the lead, the then-20-year-old pumped her fist as she drained a birdie putt on the par-5 18th to finish four-under for the day in Springfield, New Jersey. Yin finished at eight-under, edging Japan’s Yuka Saso (66) by a stroke. Despite finding the rough off the tee at the par-5 18th, Yin reached the green in three and sank a 10-foot birdie putt to break a tie with Saso at seven-under.

Ruoning Yin took out the event in 2023. (PHOTO: Getty Images)

FIRST-EVER WINNER
The LPGA Championship was run and won for the first time in 1955. American Beverly Hanson was victorious at Orchard Ridge Country Club in Fort Wayne, Indiana, 4-and-3 over runner-up Louise Suggs. Back then the Championship’s format was three rounds of stroke play, followed by match play on Sunday to determine the final standings. It was Hanson’s first of three major wins; she’d go onto slay at the 1956 Western Open and then the Titleholders Championship (1958). Fun fact: according to the internet, Hanson was a bassoon player who performed with civic orchestras, too.

LOWEST SCORE
The lowest score for 72 holes on a par 71 layout for a Women’s PGA/LPGA Championship event (which is what our combatants will be dealing with at Sahalee CC) is Betsy King’s 267, 17-under par in 1992. The American was on fire at the Bethesda Country Club in Maryland, blitzing the field to finish 11 strokes ahead of countrywomen JoAnne Carner and Karen Noble and Sweden’s Liselotte Neumann. Of a total purse of US$1 million, King took home $150,000, which was probably a lot of money at the time. But then again, this was women’s elite sport in the early ’90s, so it probably wasn’t …

MICHELLE WIE EFFECT
Up to 2005, the LPGA Championship was only open to professional players. This changed when a brilliant young golfing mastermind called Michelle Wie entered the scene. Wie was 15 years old and not yet a member of any tour, including the LPGA, which had a minimum age requirement of 18 years. However, this strict rule was revoked so that everyone could see Wie play and be happy. Right? Um, not exactly. Some professionals, including Laura Davies, protested that such a rule change came at the expense of less successful pros trying to make a living. The rule was switched back the following year. Wie wouldn’t be left out though, as she’d turned pro in time for the following year’s event, in which she tied for fifth.

Eligibility rules changed for Michelle Wie, then were changed back. (PHOTO: Getty Images)

HOST WITH THE MOST
Since 2014 the LPGA Championship’s host course has changed from year to year, like most of golf’s other majors, other than that one at Augusta. But it wasn’t always like that. From 1978-1989, for example, the Jack Nickalus Sports Centre in Mason, Ohio was the home of the tournament and still holds the record for most consecutive years’ hosting. The club choose the right time to get involved. The legendary Nancy Lopez, who was in her prime at that time, lived in a house on the course, where she won all three of her major championships, those being LPGA Champs titles, in 1978, 1985 and 1989.

WINNINGEST WINNER
Hard to believe, but despite her home ground advantage, Lopez doesn’t actually own the most LPGA Championships/KPMG Women’s PGA titles record. World Golf Hall of Famer Mickey Wright has won the most, claiming victories in 1958, ’60, ’61 and ’63. But then again, Wright won pretty much everything else during her time in the game as well. Her 82 LPGA tour wins sits second only behind Kathy Whitworth’s 88, and her 13 majors second to Patty Berg’s 15. Wright was only 23 years old when she claimed her first LPGA win at Churchill Valley Country Club in Pennsylvania.

WHERE IT ALL BEGAN FOR BROOKE
Welcome back to Sahalee Country Club for the KPMG Women’s PGA Championship – for the first time since 2016. That year, a young whipper-snapper called Brooke Henderson faced a harrowing sudden-death play-off against the top-ranked Lydia Ko after both had recorded bogey-free final rounds with scores of 65 (Henderson) and 67 (Ko). Henderson’s win was only the second ever women’s major victory by a Canadian and the first in a tick under a half-century, with Sandra Post the first to do it back in 1968.  Henderson pocketed US$525,000 for the win; not bad money for a then 18-year-old.

Canadian Brooke Henderson’s win in 2016 at Sahalee Country Club was her first-ever victory at a major. (PHOTO: Getty Images)

TROPHY TIME
There are some absolutely majestic-looking trophies in women’s golf (The Chevron, Solheim and Cognizant Founders Cup spoils would look good in anyone’s poolroom … or indeed trophy cabinet), but few are as imposing-looking as the prize for this prestigious tournament. Over the years sculpting firm Malcolm DeMille has been called on to refurbish the silverware, not only giving it a touch up, but also adding a new lower sterling silver base, which houses the tournament’s and past champions’ names. In 2015 DeMille also designed a take-home trophy which was 60 percent of the size of the one we see on TV. In 2022 he was asked to make the replica two inches taller.

AUSSIES AT THE PGA
Over the years three Aussies have claimed victory at the Women’s PGA championship. Jan Stephenson was the first in 1982, carding -9 and winning by two strokes over American Donna Caponi at Jack Nickalaus’ Sports Centre. It was a long wait before we’d strike again, and this time it was in the form of 26-year-old Karrie Webb, who won by 2 strokes (-14) over Laura Diaz at the DuPont Country club in Delaware in 2001. It was good times for Webb, who completed her career grand slam with the victory, which followed her U.S Open title earlier that same month. Hannah Green was our latest winner of the tourney back in 2019.

HOW WE WENT LAST YEAR
Last year’s Women’s PGA event at Baltusrol Golf Club in Springfield, New Jersey was a mixed bag for our Aussie players. Grace Kim finished the highest of the Aussies, tied for 14th on -3 (281) after her final two rounds of 69 each. Minjee Lee placed T20 at -1, Gabi Ruffels even at T24, Hannah Green tied for 68th and carded 8-over, while Steph Kyriacou finished with a +7 T61 result. Sarah Kemp and Karis Davidson missed the cut … but so did Nelly Korda, so there’s that. A quick recap: Ruoning Yin won, carding -8 (276).

MORE MONEY
Comparing prizemoney amounts from the first Women’s PGA tournament played back in 1955 to the loot today’s winner will pocket can be alarming. The aforementioned Hanson was awarded $US1200 of the total prize pool of $6000 for her win (or $14,000 adjusted for inflation by using a calculator from the cyber web). Fast forward to today and whoever wins this year’s event stands to take home one and a half million dollars from a whopping $US10 million purse.

RULES IS RULES
Majors like this often have very specific eligibility criteria attached to them. So before you ask: “how did she qualify for this” keep in mind that … “Any Player who did not compete in the 2019 KPMG Women’s PGA Championship due to maternity, as approved by the KPMG Women’s PGA Championship in conjunction with the player’s home tour, provided she was otherwise qualified to compete in the 2019 KPMG Women’s PGA Championship” is eligible to play if they nominate. Meanwhile, if the 132 playing spots look like not being filled, remaining spots will be filled by Members, ranked in the order of their position on the current year’s LPGA Priority List.

FOREIGN INVADERS
Tell you what, over the decades the Americans haven’t exactly been excellent at fortifying their defenses for this event, as a quick look at the honour roll illustrates. International players have claimed the PGA/LPGA Championship event 27 times. For the first 13 years of the event the Yanks had it covered. Then Canadian Sarah Post broke through in 1968. Hannah Green and Jan Stephenson have punched three holes in the wall, but a lot of the damage by the internationals has been caused by hat-tricks to Annika Sorenstam in the early 2000s and South Korea’s Inbee Park a decade ago, while South Korean champion Se Ri Pak also won three in different years.

The 2019 Women’s PGA Championship winner, Hannah Green. (PHOTO: Getty Images)