Eight Major winners in final LPGA list for MCKAYSON New Zealand Open

4 Sep 2017

Media Release:

Eight Major winners, including three from last weekend’s winning USA Solheim Cup team, have completed final confirmation for next month’s MCKAYSON New Zealand Women’s Open.

The eight players, with 14 Major wins and more than NZ$88 million in prizemoney between them, are in the final confirmed 90 LPGA players to contest the NZ$1.85 million event at Windross Farm golf course in Auckland from 28 September to 1 October.

The trio of Paula Creamer, Brittany Lincicome and young gun Danielle Kang were part of the winning American Solheim Cup team. The other Major winners comprise Canada’s Brooke Henderson, Korea’s Na Yeon Choi, Taiwan’s Yani Tseng, Scotand’s Catriona Matthew and tournament host Lydia Ko.

Tseng and Ko have been so dominant that they wore the crown as world number one for more than four years between them.

Tseng was the youngest player either male or female, at 22 years, to win five majors - the US Women’s PGA Championship twice, the Women’s British Open twice and the ANA Inspiration.

Lincicome, 31, is a two-time Major winner and likely to be one of the most popular players at the tournament, on the back of her big hitting game, which has earned her the nickname of BamBam.

She won the Kraft Nabisco Championship in 2009 before it morphed into the ANA Inspiration which she won in 2015. Along the way she has won seven times on the LPGA including the opening event this year in the Bahamas.

Choi is another player with a remarkable record in the game, with her nine LPGA wins including the US Women’s Open in 2012. She won honours as leading money winner and the Vare Trophy for low scoring average in 2010. The 29 year old has won over NZ$15 million in earnings, with her first professional tournament victory in Korea at just 17 on the back of a stellar amateur career.

Henderson, 19, already has four professional wins to her credit including her breakthrough victory when she beat Ko in a playoff to claim her first Major, the 2016 Women’s PGA Championship.

Matthew, who splits her time between USA and Europe, has 11 tournament wins to her credit including the British Open in 2010 and four wins on the LPGA, amassing more than NZ$13m in her career.

She played in the Solheim Cup with fellow European teammates Jodi Ewart-Shadoff (England), last year’s top ranked Symetra Tour star, Madelene Sagstrom (Sweden), Emily Pederson (Denmark) and Mel Reid (England), who have also confirmed their entries.

Creamer is a 12-time winner who has amassed more than $NZ 16 million in prizemoney including a win in her first year to become the youngest winner of a multiple-round tournament, which stood until 2011. She claimed her Major at the US Women’s Open in 2010 with her last win coming at the HSBC Women’s Champions in 2014.

Kang, 24, won her first Major with victory in the KPMG PGA Championship this year, pushing her one spot outside the top-10 in the Rolex World Rankings for the two-time US Amateur champion.

And then there’s the 20-year-old Ko, who was world number one for a remarkable 104 weeks and in her very short but meteoric rise in the sport, has already won 14 times including two Majors along with 60 top-10 LPGA finishes.

There are a further eight players who have won 29 times between them on the LPGA or European Ladies Tour. They comprise Katherine Kirk (Australia, 3), Angela Stanford (USA, 5), Su Oh (Australia, 1), Christina Kim (USA, 4), Beatrice Recari (Spain, 4), Caroline Hedwell (England, 5), Mel Reid (England, 6), Mariajo Uribe (Colombia, 1).

“To have golfers who have won so many Major Championships between them is a testament to the quality of the field coming to New Zealand,” said tournament director Michael Goldstein.

“To this you have a number of outstanding players who have won many times on either on the LPGA or the LET Tours.

“We have a large number of proven champions in the women’s game competing in Auckland, and it will be a privilege for New Zealand fans to watch players of this calibre in action. It is a level of golf that has never been seen in this country before.

“There are some young players still to make their names at the top of the sport but they are part of this revolution that is changing the face of women’s golf.”

There is a final field of 132 players comprising the 90 confirmed players from the LPGA with a further 40 players to be confirmed with 15 to come from the Australian Ladies Professional Golf, 10 from New Zealand Golf and 17 Sponsor invites.

Hospitality packages for the MCKAYSON New Zealand Women's Open are available. A limited number of four-day season passes are available at $99 plus booking fee. Single day passes are available at $39 for Thursday and Friday and $49 per day for Saturday and Sunday – both plus booking fee. All children 16 years and under are free when accompanied by a paying adult.

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