LPGA Tournament Kicks Off Monday in Rogers
Six of the top women golfers in the world arrive in Northwest Arkansas this week for the LPGA Tournament in Rogers.
The tournament comes to the region early this year after being pushed up from September to this month. Officials say it was changed due to the Summer Olympics in London, which pushed back the date of the Women’s British Open.
The Walmart NW Arkansas Championship presented by P&G starts Monday at Pinnacle Country Club in Rogers.
“The British Women’s Open then moved to September close to what our traditional date [has been],” said David Shoemaker, tournament director. “You really don’t want with an event like this… to be close to a major championship going on across an ocean. Players like to go over early and [get] acclimated, so it made sense for us to get away from that.”
Some of the top women golfers will play at this year’s tournament.
“Yani Tseng is the world’s number one; Stacey Lewis from Arkansas who just ascended to number two in the world and is the top ranked American will be there,” Shoemaker said. “Some of the bigger names like Suzann Petterson, Michelle Wie, Paula Creamer, Morgan Pressel. We really got a good of field as we could hope for.”
And this year, there will be a high school golfer from Conway who has the opportunity to play Monday.
“… Summar Roachell who is a high school player and one of the top-rated high school players in the country — she has an exemption into our Monday qualifier,” Shoemaker said.
This year there will be more spectator viewing areas and a kids center at the 18th tee.
“We’ll have a Breyers ice’s cream truck there, bounce house, coloring…We’ll get some player there to visit and do autographs,” he said.
Twenty-five thousand fans are expected to watch the tournament at Pinnacle Country Club.
For ticket information go to http://nwachampionship.com/
