KINGSTON, WA – Some of the biggest names in women’s professional golf back in the day are back in the Northwest this week, competing in the inaugural Suquamish Clearwater Legends Cup at the White Horse Golf Club.

The 30-player field features LPGA and World Golf Hall of Fame members JoAnne Carner, Pat Bradley, Betsy King and Hollis Stacy, as well as numerous former LPGA tournament winners, including past champions of the former Safeco Classic that was played at the Meridian Valley Country Club.

“I won my 29th LPGA tournament and at that time it was another step closer to earning Hall of Fame status,” said Pat Bradley, winner of the 1991 Safeco Classic. “It’s a beautiful area and I’m really looking forward to this event.”

In addition to Bradley, past Safeco Classic champions in the field will include Washington native Carner (1985), Australian Jan Stephenson (1987) and Californian Brandie Burton (1993).

Other players in the field with multiple Legends Tour wins include:Rosie Jones of South Carolina (seven); Florida’s Scranton (five); Canadian Lorie Kane (four); Laurie Rinker of Florida (four); and Sweden’s Liselotte Neumann (three).

Four-time LPGA Tour winner Wendy Ward, who resides in Edwall, Wa., will make her Legends Tour debut. The field also includes Michelle McGann (pictured), well-known for her expansive array of hats.

Former Solheim Cup Team members for both the United States and Europe will be represented in the field, including Neumann and England’s Trish Johnson of the European side, as well as California’s Pat Hurst and Minnesotan Michele Redman of Team USA.
The players will compete for a purse of $175,000, with the winner taking home $25,000.

Plans for the first of at least two Suquamish Clearwater Legends Cups — and the first of four events on the Legends Tour — has been in the planning stage for more than a year and White Horse Golf Club General Manager and Head Golf Professional Bruce Christy said, “The course has never played or looked as good as it does now. It is in the best condition it has ever been.”

A week of tournament festivities kicked off on Monday with the picturesque and challenging facility hosting Media Day. Representatives from the club, including Christy, the LPGA and the Suquamish Clearwater Indian Tribe discussed the event.

The course has been set up for the players and fans, alike. There aren’t any ropes to keep players and fans far apart. The Legends Cup players are known to sign autographs and engage in conversation with their fans. A relaxed, fun atmosphere is the rule, not the exception.

Better yet, the price of admission is more than reasonable — $15 per day or $20 for both days.

Christy gave a brief history of the course. It opened in 2007 to national praise but struggled financially until the Suquamish Indian Tribe bought the facility in 2010. The course was considered
gorgeous but too difficult to be enjoyed by average golfers and so the late John Harbottle III was hired to “soften” and make it more appealing. As Christy put it, “It’s the average golfer who pays the bills.” Among the Harbottle changes was removing dozens of bunkers. Christy said, “The course has never played or looked as good as it does now.”

The White Horse Golf Club Women’s Amateur Team Scramble will be played on Wednesday and the winning team will compete in Friday’s Pro-Am.

The pros then take center-stage, playing a practice round on Friday and compete in a two-some format over nearly 6,000 yards on Saturday and Sunday. The second-day pairings will be determined by the first-round scores, with the leaders teeing off last.

Local product Joanne Carner

The Legends Tour is the official senior tour of the LPGA, providing competitive opportunities for female golfers, professional and eligible amateurs, age 45 and over.

The tour was founded in 2000 by 25 veteran LPGA Tour professionals to showcase the talents of some of the greatest women’s golfers of all time. The Legends Tour now has more than 120 members, including 14 LPGA and World Golf Hall of Fame members.

Legends Tour members have more than 750 combined LPGA Tour victories, including 84 major championships.

In its 17 seasons, The Legends Tour has awarded more than $16 million in prize money and helped raise over $22 million for charity. It has hosted nearly 100 charity golf events and professional tournaments nationwide in multiple states and overseas in Japan and Australia.

The inaugural event at the picturesque and challenging White Horse Golf Club is sure to challenge the pros — just as it did earlier in the week on Media Day on Monday. The low score was kept secret for some reason, as was the high score — for good reason.

Here are the Legends players:

Bartholomew, Jean – Garden City, N.Y.

Blalock, Jane – Cambridge, Mass.

Bradley, Pat – West Hyannisport, Mass.

Burton, Brandie – LaVerne, Calif.

Carner, JoAnne – Lake Worth, Fla.

Crosby, Elaine – Jackson, Mich.

Dibos, Alicia – Greenwich, Conn.

Drew, Heather  – Bermuda Dunes, Calif.

Finney, Allison – Bermuda Dunes, Calif.

Graham, Gail – Kelowna, B.C., Canada

Grimes, Lisa – Gold Canyon, Ariz.

Hurst, Pat – Danville, Calif.

Jeray, Nicole – Berwyn, Ill.

Johnson, Trish – London, England

Jones, Rosie – Hilton Head Island, S.C.

Kane, Lorie – Prince Edward Island, Canada

King, Betsy – Scottsdale, Ariz.

McGann, Michelle – North Palm Beach, Fla.

Miller, Cindy – Silver Creek, N.Y.

Mucha, Barb – Orlando, Fla.

Neumann, Liselotte – Rancho Mirage, Calif.

Palmer, Sandra – Long Beach, Calif.

Rarick, Cindy  – Tucson, Ariz.

Redman, Michele  – Plymouth, Minn.

Rinker, Laurie – Stuart, Fla.

Scranton, Nancy – St. Augustine, Fla.

Stacy, Hollis – Holmes Beach, Fla.

Stephenson, Jan – Sydney, Australia

Ward, Wendy – Edwall,  Wash.

West, Lori – Aspen, Colo.