LPGA Tour Coming to SF’s Harding Park in 2023
The LPGA last week announced that a team match-play competition, an event that showcases the best female golfers from the top eight countries across the globe, will return to the LPGA Tour calendar for the first time since 2018 and will be held at San Francisco’s famed TPC Harding Park on May 4-7, 2023.
Held biennially, the Hanwha LIFEPLUS International Crown celebrates the world’s best female golfers. The four-day competition sees players represent their countries rather than a continent or region, highlighting the global nature of the game of golf.
About San Francisco’s TPC Harding Park
The 18-hole, par-72 Harding Park Course is situated on a gently rolling peninsula surrounded by the shores of Lake Merced in San Francisco. The championship layout hosted many prestigious golf tournaments such as the San Francisco Open and the Lucky International Professional Golf Championship. The TOUR has since returned to TPC Harding Park for the 2005 World Golf Championships-American Express Championship, the Presidents Cup in October 2009, Charles Schwab Cup Championship in 2010, 2011 and 2013 and was Host of the 2015 WGC-Cadillac Match Play.
Ranked by Golf Digest as one of the “Best Places to Play” (4.5 out of 5 stars), TPC Harding Park continues to be a “must-play” for San Francisco and Bay Area residents and visitors alike. TPC Harding Park’s championship layout championship follows the original routing designed by architect Willie Watson and Sam Whiting in 1925.
The Harding Park golf course is lined with towering Monterey Cypress trees and borders Lake Merced. TPC Harding Park has contoured green complexes and four sets of tees will challenge every golfer from beginner to the most skilled player. TPC Harding Park also features a 9-hole course, the Fleming 9, which is over 2,100 yards.
The field of eight countries for the Hanwha LIFEPLUS International Crown will be determined by the combined Rolex Women’s World Golf Rankings of the top four players from each country as of Nov. 21, 2022, immediately following the CME Group Tour Championship. The final field of 32 players will be determined via the Rolex Rankings as of April 2, 2023, immediately following the Palos Verdes Championship.
The competition will take place over four days, but will have a new format for Sunday’s final day. Thursday, Friday and Saturday will feature four-ball competition. The top two countries from each pool will advance to Sunday. Two semifinal matches will be played Sunday morning, with each match consisting of two singles matches and one foursomes match. The winning semifinal countries will compete in the final match on Sunday afternoon, along with a third-place match between the two losing semifinal countries. The final and third-place match will be played in the same format as the semifinals.
The 2023 Hanwha LIFEPLUS International Crown will mark the first elite women’s competition to be held at TPC Harding Park.
Named after U.S. President Warren G. Harding, the course initially opened on July 18, 1925, with a course designed by Willie Watson and Sam Whiting, who also designed the Lake Course at The Olympic Club. For the next few decades, the course hosted elite amateur and professional events, but eventually fell into significant disrepair.
A $16 million restoration in 2002-2003 featured a complete re-design to the course, which reopened on Aug. 22, 2003. Since the renovations, TPC Harding Park has hosted such events as the 2005 WGC-American Express Championship; the 2009 Presidents Cup; the 2010, 2011 and 2013 Charles Schwab Cup Championship; the 2015 WGC Dell Technologies Match Play; and the 2020 PGA Championship.
In 2018, the team from the Republic of Korea (In Gee Chun, Sei Young Kim, Sung Hyun Park, So Yeon Ryu) won the Hanwha LIFEPLUS International Crown on home soil at Jack Nicklaus Golf Club in Incheon, with the USA and England tied for second. The 2016 edition was also won by the host nation, with the U.S. Team (Cristie Kerr, Stacy Lewis, Gerina Mendoza, Lexi Thompson) emerging victorious at Merit Club in Illinois. The inaugural competition in 2014, held at Caves Valley Golf Club in Maryland, was won by the team from Spain (Carlota Ciganda, Azahara Munoz, Belen Mozo, Beatriz Recari). The 2020 competition was scheduled to be played in England, but was postponed due to the pandemic.
Information on tickets and sales packages, as well as the official logo, will be available later this year.
