Quentin Corpuel | Post-Dispatch
The inaugural St. Louis Women’s Championship, which is scheduled to begin Thursday and finish Sunday, has a field of 132 players competing for a purse of $80,000 over 72 holes on Whitmoor’s South Course in Weldon Spring. It is the seventh stop on this season’s ANNIKA Women’s All-Pro Tour.
Quentin Corpuel | Post-Dispatch
On Thursday, Whitmoor Country Club in Weldon Spring will open its gates to the ANNIKA Women’s All-Pro Tour (WAPT) for the inaugural St. Louis Women’s Championship golf tournament.
It represents a big reason why Annika Sorenstam, one of the greatest women’s golfers of all time, walked away from the game at just 37 years old in 2008.
“I’m surprised with the timing, but it’s the way she wants to do it,” then-LPGA commissioner Carolyn Bivens said after Sorenstam’s retirement almost two decades ago. “In the long run, she’ll have just as much of an impact outside the game of golf, if not more.”
Sorenstam cited two parts of her personal life that needed more attention: her family and her business ventures.
Sure enough, those business ventures came to fruition. Sorenstam helped design golf courses, opened her own golf academy in Florida and created an alliance with the Women’s All-Pro Tour in July 2023. The WAPT, according to media and communications director Marissa McCardell, is a “stepping stone” for players to reach the LPGA Tour.
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“Our field numbers have increased so much,” McCardell said. “We have almost full fields every week now, which is great. Our next tournament next week in Peoria; we even have a waiting list.”
The last time a St. Louis-area course hosted a professional women’s golf tournament was in July 2001.
The St. Louis Women’s Championship, which is scheduled to begin Thursday and finish Sunday, has a field of 132 players representing 11 countries competing for a total purse of $80,000 over 72 holes on Whitmoor’s South Course.
It is the seventh of 13 events this season on the WAPT. Three St. Louis golfers are in the field: Amanda Kim, McKenna Montgomery and Sophie Faulkner.
Later this week, the rolling green hills at Whitmoor could witness greatness from players trying to chase it. At this stage in their careers, the chasing is more like scratching and clawing, each player fighting for a better tomorrow.
And for the first time in almost 25 years, that chase will take place near St. Louis.
Hailey Jones is the WAPT money leader this season with $26,820. In six events this season, the Dallas native has placed in the top five in all but one.
She won the FCA Women’s Championship on May 16 in Broken Arrow, Oklahoma, shooting 5-under par over the final nine holes to earn $10,000.
“Finishing top five in the money list was a huge goal for me this year,” Jones said. “It provides such a great opportunity and a stepping stone onto the LPGA. Obviously, finishing top five doesn’t (directly) get you onto the LPGA, but it gets you into the second stage.”
The inaugural St. Louis Women’s Championship, which is scheduled to begin Thursday and finish Sunday, has a field of 132 players competing for a purse of $80,000 over 72 holes on Whitmoor’s South Course in Weldon Spring. It is the seventh stop on this season’s ANNIKA Women’s All-Pro Tour.
Quentin Corpuel | Post-Dispatch
The “second stage” Jones referred to is part of a system that’s similar to the minor leagues in baseball, except if call-ups were incentive-based and not up to front offices. The LPGA’s Qualifying Series (or Q-Series) involves three stages where players must finish at a certain place in tournaments in order to move up.
The top five players on the ANNIKA Women’s All-Pro Tour points list earn spots in the second of three stages of LPGA Qualifying, scheduled for Oct. 15-18 in Venice, Florida.
Also, the top two finishers of each All-Pro Tour event earn exemptions into designated events on the Epson Tour, a professional tour that’s a level below the LPGA Tour.
“It gives them something else to chase other than a trophy,” McCardell said.
Players are also chasing something else: Sorenstam’s greatness. But that’ll be like climbing two Mount Everests.
Sorenstam won 72 official LPGA tournaments (No. 3 all-time), with 10 of them being majors. She was a record eight-time LPGA player of the year, and in 2001, she became the first player to shoot below 60 in LPGA history, firing a 13-under-par 59 in the second round of the Standard Register Ping in Phoenix.
Unlike Sorenstam’s achievements, the players on the WAPT already have captured a sense of idolization from Sorenstam’s impact on women’s golf. McCardell got her hat signed by Sorenstam when she competed at the SaveMart Shootout in Fresno, California.
A young McCardell wore the hat to junior tournaments all over. The hat has withstood the test of time, and it still resides in McCardell’s parents’ home in Nashville, Tennessee.
“I thought it was the coolest thing ever because I had her signature on it,” McCardell said. “So it’s kind of a full-circle moment, growing up and watching her and looking up to her, and then now working for a tour that has her name on it.”
In today’s 10 AM “Ten Hochman” video, Ben Hochman discusses Caitlin Clark and the physical play of teammate Sophie Cunningham (Mizzou)! Plus, a happy birthday shoutout to Paul McCartney! And as always, Hochman picks a random Cards card out of the hat!
Benjamin Hochman | Post-Dispatch
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