The history of the Women’s PGA Championship

The KPMG Women’s PGA Championship is the second oldest of the five current women’s majors, dating to 1955, but what is the history of the tournament?

Of the five women’s majors, only the US Women’s Open outdates the Women’s PGA Championship. It is also one of three majors that takes place in the United States.

Apart from the very first edition of the Women’s PGA, the tournament has been a four-day stroke play competition. The 1955 edition saw three rounds of stroke play, followed by match play on Sunday to determine the final order.

Americans would dominate the early years of the tournament, winning all bar four editions through to 1993. Since then, the history books have seen plenty of different flags for the winners.

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The tournament began life as the LPGA Championship, an event run solely by the LPGA Tour for the first six decades of its history.

Throughout those 60 years, there were a number of sponsorship changes, with Mazda, McDonald’s, AIG, Coca-Cola and Wegmans all in the title name.

There were also runs of the event being held at the same venue. The Jack Nicklaus Sports Centre in Ohio played host to the tournament for 12 consecutive years from 1978 to 1989.

DuPont Country Club (11), Pleasant Valley (7), Stardust Country Club (6), Bulle Rock (5), Bethesda Country Club (4), and Locust Hill Country Club (4) are the other venues to host the Women’s PGA Championship on more than two occasions.

Mickey Wright is the most successful golfer in the history of the Women’s PGA Championship. The American won the event four times, with victories in 1958, 1960, 1961 and 1963.

The last of those wins came at Stardust Country Club, where Wright finished the tournament 10-over, but still held on to win by two shots.

Compare that to the scoring record to par of 19-under, which has been achieved on four occasions. Cristie Kerr (2010), Yani Tseng (2011), Inbee Park (2015) and Nelly Korda (2021) all won the tournament at -19.

Kerr was the first, and her victory was by an incredible 12 shots at Locust Hill, the biggest margin of victory in tournament history. Sei-Young Kim holds the aggregate scoring record, shooting a 14-under 266 at the Par 70 Aronimink in 2020.

Two women – Annika Sorenstam and Inbee Park – are the only women to have won the Women’s PGA Championship in three successive years.

Sorenstam made history when she did so in 2003, 2004 and 2005, while South Korea’s Inbee Park did so exactly a decade later, winning her three titles in 2013, 2014 and 2015.

Kathy Whitworth, Nancy Lopez, Patty Sheehan and Se Ri Pak are the other women to have won this tournament on three occasions.

Following the 2015 edition of the event, the PGA of America took over the reigns. It was renamed the Women’s PGA Championship for the 2016 edition, to bring it in line with the men’s PGA Championship.

Since then, all bar two winners of the tournament have claimed their maiden major title in doing so. Brooke Henderson was the first, and she was the victor at Sahalee in 2016, the first time the tournament was held at the Washington venue.

Danielle Kang (2017), Hannah Green (2019), Sei-Young Kim (2020) and Nelly Korda (2021) all claimed their first major victory by winning the Women’s PGA. Amy Yang then did it back at Sahalee in 2024.

China’s Ruoning Yin (below) is the defending champion, having won by a single shot in 2023. It was also her first major, as she became just the second Chinese player to win the tournament.

Following the 2024 edition at Sahalee, the Women’s PGA Championship will move to PGA Frisco for 2025. The Texan venue will also hold the 2031 edition of the tournament.

Hazeltine National (2026) and Congressional (2027) are also slated to host the Women’s PGA Championship in the next few years, both for the second time.

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