Beginning in 2021, women in the space between amateur golf and the LPGA will have a place to test their match-play skills thanks to PXG. The equipment company has announced the creation of the PXG Women’s Match Play Championship for Oct. 25-Nov. 5, 2021. The unique event will take place over two weeks at World Golf Village in St. Augustine, Florida.
The event will feature 64 female professionals. Eligible players include those who are pursuing their dream of playing on the LPGA.
The players will compete over two weeks in two separate, but connected, tournaments. The first week will feature a 54-hole stroke-play format on World Golf Village’s King & Bear course, which will also seed the second week’s event, a 64-woman match play championship at Slammer & Squire. There will be no cut in the stroke-play event and all players will advance to the match-play tournament.
Each tournament will have its own prize purse, plus the champion will receive the opportunity for a tour-caliber full-bag fitting and equipment from PXG.
“We are thrilled for the opportunity to further celebrate and support women in golf with our sponsorship of the PXG Women’s Match Play Championship,” PXG founder and CEO Bob Parsons said in a release. “This highly competitive playing experience creates an exceptional opportunity for these talented women to hone their skills and fight to progress their golf career. I can’t wait to watch them play!”
The PXG Women’s Match Play Championship is one of 14 official events on the Women’s All Pro Tour, which is the Official Qualifying Tour for the LPGA’s Symetra Tour.
“If the Symetra Tour is the Road to the LPGA, then events like ours and tours like WAPT and Cactus Tour are the on-ramps,” said Mark D. Berman, a managing partner at MediaShare Consulting Group, which is producing the event along with On the Green Consulting. “For the past 10 or so years, the industry has done an amazing job at cultivating young girls to play this great game, much of that messaging centered on playing professionally. Now those girls are coming out of college wanting to further their career. This is a passion project inspired by our personal experiences with players at this level who are looking for another path in.”
The event falls in line with PXG’s support of women’s golf. The company carries more than a dozen LPGA players on its pro roster and provides equipment to many other top-ranked female pros.
Tournament week will also feature women’s initiatives such as leadership forums, executive networking and education. The programming is being developed and provided by Generation W, a national nonprofit founded and led by Donna Orender based in nearby Jacksonville Beach, Florida. The program’s mission embraces the guiding tenets of education, inspiration, and connection and the power of women’s leadership.
A slew of other sponsors have also signed on for the event, including Bentley & Maserati, Sqairz Golf Shoes, and Cox Media Group and Kessler Creative.
