LPGA T&CP CHAMPIONSHIP

Mid Pines Set to Host 2017 LPGA T&CP National Championship

 

Eight players will earn spots in 2018 KPMG Women’s PGA Championship

 

 

DAYTONA BEACH, Fla., September 1, 2017 – The Ladies Professional Golf Association (LPGA) Teaching and Club Professionals (T&CP) will head to Southern Pines, North Carolina and the Mid Pines Inn & Golf Club Sept. 4-6 for the 2017 LPGA T&CP National Championship.

The 54-hole, stroke-play Championship will be held on the Donald Ross-designed course, which was built in 1921 and has hosted many national championships including the 2002 U.S. Senior Women’s Amateur Championship. The LPGA T&CP National Championship has been contested at Mid Pines three times previously and this year will mark the first time the championship will return there since 2002.

The LPGA T&CP National Championship was originally organized in 1983 to provide additional playing opportunities for LPGA Teaching and Club Professionals. The three-day competition has since grown to become recognized as the premier tournament for women golf professionals in the world. The tournament features three divisions: Championship (6,359 yards), Challenge (6,001) and Senior (50+, 5,716 yards). The field will be cut to the Top 70 and ties after 36-holes.

“We are very excited to bring this Championship back to Mid Pines,” said Nancy Henderson, Chief Teaching Officer of the Teaching and Club Professionals and President of the LPGA Foundation.  “The resort is the perfect setting for the championship and will provide unique challenges for our professionals, especially on the greens. Female members of the PGA of America will be competing side-by-side with our LPGA T&CP members for a share of the $100,000 purse and the opportunity to compete in the 2018 KPMG Women’s PGA Championship.”

The top eight finishers in the Championship division will go on to represent the LPGA T&CP in the 2018 KPMG Women’s PGA Championship, one of five major championships on the LPGA Tour, which will be held at Kemper Lakes Golf Club outside Chicago next year. The top five finishers in the Senior division will qualify for the 2018 LPGA Senior Championship at the French Lick Resort as well as any competitors over the age of 45 who finish in the top 10 in the Championship division.

Defending champion, Lisa Grimes, an LPGA Teaching Professional from Austin, Minnesota, will headline the field competing for the T&CP National Championship as well as one of the eight coveted exemptions. Joining Grimes in the field will be 2015 champion Laurie Rinker as well as four-time winner Jean Bartholomew.

More than a dozen LPGA T&CP members who reside in North Carolina will also compete in this year’s Championship, including University of North Carolina at Greensboro women’s head coach Janell Howland, Kelly Cap of Pinehurst, Victoria Kuehner of Wilmington and Ann Marie Goslak of Winston-Salem. 

Other notable players in the field include past T&CP National Championship Lisa DePaulo of Goodyear, Arizona. Many of the top-8 finishers from last year’s Championship return including PGA Club Professional Karen Paolozzi (Ga.), Alison Curdt (Calif.), and Kristin Walla (Calif.).

In addition to the National Championship, family and friends have the opportunity to join in on the action by participating in the Titleist Pro-Am competition and the LPGA-USGA Girls Golf Clinic presented by Coca-Cola, which precedes the Championship.

Professionals, amateurs, and the general public will also have the opportunity to discover new products, test golf club equipment supplied by tournament sponsor-partners and meet with company representatives during the on-site Demo Days, Saturday and Sunday, Sept. 2-3.

About the LPGA Teaching and Club Professional Membership

The LPGA Teaching and Club Professional (T&CP) membership was founded in 1959 as an outgrowth of the LPGA Tour.  More than 1,700 members strong, the LPGA T&CP boasts the largest association of women golf professionals in the world and is the leader in research-based golf education.  The LPGA T&CP provides members with section, regional, and national programs that further the LPGA’s commitment to offering state-of-the-art education in the methods and techniques of teaching the game of golf.  

LPGA Teaching and Club Professionals are dedicated to advancing the game of golf through teaching, coaching and managing golf facilities.  LPGA T&CP members also support the LPGA’s various grassroots programs that were created to increase the involvement of women and youth in golf as well as contribute to the overall growth of the sport.  These programs include LPGA-USGA Girls Golf, LPGA Tour Junior Clinics, the LPGA Lesson Zone presented by Volvik, LPGA Clinics for Women, Nike Junior Golf Camps and others.