2024 KPMG Ladies’s PGA Championship: Trophy Historical past & Significance Explored

The season’s third main championship, the seventieth KPMG Ladies’s PGA Championship, is all set to start. The historic championship will begin on the Sahalee Nation Membership, a spot the place it was hosted in 2016. That yr, Canada’s very personal Brooke Henderson received her first main with a birdie on the primary gap of a sudden-death playoff when she managed to out-duel fellow Lydia Ko. Now that she is returning to the identical greens after 8 years, it’s certainly particular for her! 

Henderson was shocked with a commemorative plaque on the 18th gap honoring her historic shot. “This victory made me a lot more popular. It gave me a lot more confidence and really the momentum to continue on with my career,” she shared. The event has had a historic presence in ladies’s golf since its inaugural in 1955, by way of notable winners, honors, the trophy, progress, publicity, or dedication to ladies’s management. One factor that has been constant all by the years is the extremely coveted silverware! 

How has the KPMG Ladies’s PGA Championship’s trophy advanced through the years?

The KPMG Ladies’s PGA Championship trophy has advanced considerably since its inception in 1955. It displays the event’s rising status and has now added a contemporary identification. Initially, the trophy was a conventional silver cup, symbolizing the rising significance of the LPGA Tour. Through the years, notably within the Seventies and Eighties, the design noticed minor updates, sustaining its silver composition whereas changing into extra polished and intricately detailed.

In 2015, with the rebranding of the KPMG Ladies’s PGA Championship, the trophy underwent a considerable redesign. And Malcolm DeMille was honored to refurbish the perpetual trophy. The fashionable model combines conventional parts with modern design, that includes refined engravings, a smooth base, and KPMG branding. That yr, a takeaway trophy that winners would take residence with them was additionally created.

The trophy stood at 8″ in diameter by 10″, about 60% of the unique dimension, and was rhodium-plated. It additionally options previous champions’ names and the yr they received. Then, in 2022, Malcolm DeMille was requested to extend the dimensions of the champion’s take-home trophy. The KPMG Ladies’s PGA Championship trophy now stands at 10.25″ diameter by 12″ tall.

The evolution of the ladies’s championship and the silverware symbolize the event’s wealthy historical past. Allow us to dive deeper to get to know slightly bit extra about it.

Historical past of the extremely coveted main of feminine golf

The KPMG Ladies’s PGA Championship is the second oldest ladies’s main, following the U.S. Ladies’s Open, which was established seven years earlier in 1946. Previously, the fourth main of the season has been recognized by a number of names: LPGA Championship, Eve-LPGA Championship, Mazda LPGA Championship, McDonald’s LPGA Championship, and Wegmans LPGA Championship.

The notable previous champions embrace the likes of LPGA founders Marlene Hagge and Louise Suggs, in addition to a number of the sport’s biggest gamers, together with Mickey Wright, Kathy Whitworth, Nancy Lopez, Annika Sörenstam, and Inbee Park. The Ladies’s PGA Championship has seen a couple of outstanding gamers who’ve managed to defend their titles efficiently. 

Mickey Wright defended her 1960 title in 1961, including to her spectacular listing of main victories and cementing her legacy as a {golfing} legend. Annika Sörenstam (Winner 2003, 2004, 2005) and Inbee Park (Winner 2013, 2014, 2015) are the one ones to realize a three-peat, showcasing their unbelievable ability and dedication. 

With this yr’s event set to start on June twentieth, who’re you rooting for? Inform us within the feedback part beneath.