American sports
Ladies Professional Golf Association
The American LPGA is best known for running the LPGA Tour, a series of weekly golf tournaments for elite female golfers which runs from February to November each year, but it is also represents female club and teaching professionals, who account for the majority of its membership.
This is different from the position in U.S. men's professional golf, where the PGA Tour which runs the main men's professional tours in the U.S. is independent of the club and teaching professionals organsation, the PGA of America.
The LPGA was founded in 1950 by a group of thirteen women. It is now the oldest ongoing women's professional sports organization in the United States. The LPGA Tour is the leading women's golf tour in the world and features leading women golfers from all over the world.
Carolyn Bivens is the Tour's current commissioner.
Major events
The annual Major tournaments are:
- Kraft Nabisco Championship
- McDonald's U.S. LPGA Championship
presented by Coca-Cola
- U.S. Women's Open
- Weetabix Women's British Open (held in cooperation with Ladies European Tour)
The vast majority of the LPGA Tour's events are held in the United States. In the 2005 season, two early-season events are scheduled in Mexico, and one mid-season event is held in Canada. Two events are co-sanctioned with the Ladies European Tour: the Women's British Open and the Evian Masters in France, held the preceding week. One late-season event is held in South Korea, which now supplies a large and competitive contingent of players on the tour, and is co-sanctioned with the LPGA of Korea Tour.
In its early decades the LPGA Tour was dominated by American players. Vivien Saunders of the United Kingdom became the first player living outside the United States to gain an LPGA tour card in 1969. The non-U.S. contingent is now very large, and generally has the upper hand on the course.
The last time an American player topped the money list was in 1993, the last time an American led the tour in tournaments won was in 1996, and no American player has won a major other than the U.S. Women's Open since 2000. In 2004 the largest international contingents were 21 South Koreans, 16 Australians, 13 Britons (6 English, 5 Scottish, 2 Welsh) and 11 Swedes.
Besides the main LPGA Tour, the LPGA operates a second-level developmental tour, the Futures Tour. Top finishers at the end of each season on that tour receive playing privileges on the main LPGA Tour for the following year.
The LPGA also administers an annual Qualifying School similar to that conducted by the PGA Tour. Depending on a golfer's finish in the Qualifying School tournament, she may receive playing privileges on the LPGA Tour, the Futures Tour, or neither tour.
In 2001 the LPGA established the Women's Senior Golf Tour for women aged 45 and above.
On June 7, 2005, former LPGA commissioner Ty Votaw, who left his post at the end of the Solheim Cup, announced that the LPGA will have a playoff system beginning in 2006. The playoff system will be a points system in which the top 30 points scorers and two wild cards will compete for a $1 million first-place prize at the ADT Championship in November in Florida. Major winners will automatically qualify, as well as winners of other selected events.