Tournament information | |
---|---|
Location | Orlando, Florida |
Established | 2019 |
Course(s) | Lake Nona Golf & Country Club |
Par | 72 |
Length | 6,617 yards (6,051 m) |
Tour(s) | LPGA Tour |
Format | Stroke play - 72 holes |
Prize fund | $1.5 million |
Month played | January |
Tournament record score | |
Aggregate | 260 Jessica Korda (2021) |
To par | −24 as above |
Current champion | |
Brooke Henderson | |
Location Map | |
Location in the United States Location in Florida |
The Hilton Grand Vacations Tournament of Champions is a women's professional golf tournament on the LPGA Tour in Florida. It debuted in 2019 at the Four Seasons Golf & Sports Club Orlando in Lake Buena Vista, Florida. The tournament field is limited to winners on LPGA Tour events in the previous two years. [1] As is the case in the past, there is also a pro-am and celebrity tournament, like its predecessor. The top amateurs during the midweek pro-am are invited to play in the main tournament. Each professional is paired with two celebrities or amateurs in the groupings, and celebrities change per round. A Stableford-based system is used for the celebrities and amateurs.
For 2022, under new corporate ownership of Hilton Grand Vacations and tournament director Aaron Stewart, son of World Golf Hall of Fame member Payne, the event moves to the Lake Nona Golf & Country Club in Orlando. The move to Lake Nona also eliminates an issue that the 18th hole, a par 3, caused at Four Seasons where the 2020 tournament was pushed to an extra day on Monday morning as the single playoff hole (the 18th) failed to produce a winner, and it was the seventh playing of the 18th hole that finally created a winner.
The celebrity division continues to be controlled by Mardy Fish and John Smoltz; the two have won three each.
In the United States, the final round of the tournament is broadcast on NBC.
Year | Dates | Champion | Country | Winning score | To par | Margin of victory | Purse ($) | Winner's share ($) |
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
2023 | Jan 19–22 | Brooke Henderson | Canada | 67-66-69-70=272 | −16 | 4 strokes | 1,500,000 | 225,000 |
2022 | Jan 20–23 | Danielle Kang | United States | 68-67-69-68=272 | −16 | 3 strokes | 1,500,000 | 225,000 |
2021 | Jan 21–24 | Jessica Korda | United States | 65-69-60-66=260 | −24 | Playoff | 1,200,000 | 180,000 |
2020 | Jan 16–20 | Gaby López | Mexico | 65-69-71-66=271 | −13 | Playoff | 1,200,000 | 180,000 |
2019 [2] | Jan 17–20 | Ji Eun-hee | South Korea | 65-69-66-70=270 | −14 | 2 strokes | 1,200,000 | 180,000 |
Note: 2020 tournament extended to five days because of darkness.
During the Pro-Am tournament that is held earlier in the week, the top amateur golfers are invited to participate in the main tournament.
For both amateurs and celebrities, the golfers play a modified Stableford system, although the LPGA and organisers chose to base scores on double bogey instead of par.
Points | Strokes taken in relation to par |
---|---|
10 | Albatross (3 strokes under par) |
8 | Hole in One (Par 3) |
5 | Eagle (2 strokes under par) |
3 | Birdie (1 stroke under par) |
2 | Par |
1 | Bogey (1 stroke over par) |
0 | Double bogey or worse (2 strokes or more over par) |
Year | Celebrity | Winning score |
---|---|---|
2023 | Mardy Fish (4) | 152 |
2022 | Derek Lowe | 138PO |
2021 | Mardy Fish (3) | 158 |
2020 | John Smoltz (3) | 150 |
2019 | John Smoltz (2) | 149 |
Note: The celebrity tournament is regarded as a continuation of the Diamond Resorts Invitational celebrity division.
Year | Player | Score | Course | Round |
---|---|---|---|---|
2020 | Danielle Kang | 63 (−8) | Four Seasons | 1st |
2020 | M. J. Hur | 63 (−8) | Four Seasons | 4th |
2021 | Danielle Kang | 63 (−8) | Four Seasons | 3rd |
2021 | Bronte Law | 63 (−8) | Four Seasons | 4th |
Annika Charlotta Sörenstam is a Swedish professional golfer. She is regarded as one of the best female golfers in history. Before stepping away from competitive golf at the end of the 2008 season, she had won 90 international tournaments as a professional, making her the female golfer with the most wins to her name. She has won 72 official LPGA tournaments including ten majors and 24 other tournaments internationally. After turning 50, she came back from her retirement and added a win in the 2021 U.S. Senior Women's Open.
The Arnold Palmer Invitational is a professional golf tournament on the PGA Tour. It is played each March at the Bay Hill Club and Lodge, a private golf resort owned since 1974 by Arnold Palmer in Bay Hill, a suburb southwest of Orlando, Florida.
Mary Kathryn "Mickey" Wright was an American professional golfer who played on the LPGA Tour. She became a member of the tour in 1955 and won 82 LPGA Tour career events including 13 major championships. She is a member of the World Golf Hall of Fame.
The Big Break is a reality television program broadcast by the Golf Channel. The show's premise was to award an aspiring professional golfer exemptions into selected events or full-season exemptions on lower-level tours. The series debuted on October 6, 2003.
Natalie Anne Gulbis is an American professional golfer who plays on the U.S.-based LPGA Tour.
Morgan Pressel is an American professional golfer and golf commentator who played on the LPGA Tour. In 2001, as a 12-year-old, she became the youngest player to qualify for the U.S. Women's Open. She was the 2005 American Junior Golf Association (AJGA) Player of the Year, and won the 2006 AJGA Nancy Lopez Award. She turned pro at age 17, and is the youngest-ever winner of a modern LPGA major championship, when at age 18 she won the 2007 Kraft Nabisco Championship and vaulted to a career-high fourth in the world rankings. In early March 2021, she announced she had joined the Golf Channel and NBC Sports to be an analyst and on-course reporter in the 2021 season, while continuing to compete.
Stableford is a scoring system used in the sport of golf. Rather than counting the total number of strokes taken, as in stroke play, it involves scoring points based on the number of strokes taken at each hole. Unlike traditional scoring methods, where the aim is to have the lowest score, under Stableford rules, the objective is to have the highest score.
Brittany Grace Lincicome is an American professional golfer who plays on the LPGA Tour. She currently resides in Gulfport, Florida.
Lake Nona Golf & Country Club is a private residential golf club community in southeast Orlando, Florida. The 600-acre (2.4 km2) community features an 18-hole championship golf course designed by Tom Fazio. Set amidst freshwater lakes and oak, pine and cypress trees, Lake Nona Golf & Country Club offers a range of residences, including custom-built estate homes.
The Royal Poinciana Invitational was a golf tournament on the LPGA Tour in 1961 and 1962. It was played at Palm Beach Golf Club in Palm Beach, Florida, a Dick Wilson and Joe Lee-designed Par-3 course. The tournament was one of the first in professional golf featuring a Battle of the Sexes concept, with a Par 3 course that neutralised power and emphasised precision golf.
Gary Woodland is an American professional golfer who plays on the PGA Tour. Woodland won the U.S. Open in 2019, his first major championship and sixth professional victory. Following a successful college career, he turned pro in 2007 and briefly competed on the circuit then known as the Nationwide Tour, now the Korn Ferry Tour. Woodland has competed on the PGA Tour since 2009 and has four wins.
Sandra Gal is a German professional golfer who currently plays on the United States–based LPGA Tour.
Danielle Grace Kang is an American professional golfer currently playing on the LPGA Tour. As an amateur, she won the U.S. Women's Amateur twice, in 2010 and 2011. She won the 2017 KPMG Women's PGA Championship, an LPGA major.
Diamond Resorts is a timeshare company headquartered in Las Vegas, Nevada, with regional offices in Orlando, Florida and Lancaster, United Kingdom. The company has a network of more than 379 vacation destinations in 35 countries around the world and sells vacation ownership points. The company sponsors numerous celebrities, including LPGA professional Brittany Lincicome, PGA Tour professional Brian Gay and MLB Hall of Famers Gaylord Perry and Reggie Jackson. The company also pairs with country music artists, including Cole Swindell, Lauren Alaina and Jana Kramer to host private concerts for its members.
Brooke Mackenzie Henderson is a Canadian professional golfer on the LPGA Tour.
The Diamond Resorts Invitational was a PGA Tour Champions Challenge Season event and celebrity golf tournament, played at Tranquilo Golf Club at Four Seasons in Orlando, Florida and benefited Florida Hospital for Children. The tournament began as a celebrity-only tournament in 2013 and in 2017, the tournament was made a PGA Tour Champions Challenge Season event. The 2018 event featured a field of 28 PGA Tour Champions and 4 LPGA Tour professionals, and 50 celebrity amateur golfers. The tournament was a no cut 54-hole event, and used the Modified Stableford scoring system. Over the years, the tournament helped raise more than $3.1 million for Florida Hospital for Children.
Nelly Korda is an American professional golfer who plays on the LPGA Tour, where she has won seven times and reached number one in the Women's World Golf Rankings. Korda won the Olympic gold medal at the women's individual golf event at the 2020 Summer Olympics in Tokyo, Japan. Along with her sister Jessica Korda, she represented the United States at the 2019 Solheim Cup and 2021 Solheim Cup.
Michael A. Flaskey, known as Mike Flaskey, is an American businessman, founder & CEO of Mike Flaskey Entertainment, and former chief executive officer of timeshare company Diamond Resorts. He is the founder and executive director of the Diamond Resorts Invitational and the Diamond Resorts Tournament of Champions, and the founder of the Hilton Grand Vacations Tournament of Champions, which is held annually in Orlando, Florida. Flaskey is also the founder of the Invited Celebrity Classic golf tournament, a PGA Tour Champions-sanctioned event.
Andrea Lee is an American professional golfer and member of the LPGA Tour. A golf prodigy, in 2015 and 2019 she spent a total of 17 weeks as world number one in the World Amateur Golf Ranking.
The 2023 LPGA Tour is the 74th edition of the LPGA Tour, a series of professional golf tournaments for elite female golfers from around the world. The season began at the Hilton Grand Vacations Tournament of Champions, in Orlando, Florida on January 19, and will end on November 19, at the Tiburón Golf Club in the CME Group Tour Championship at Naples, Florida. The tournaments were sanctioned by the United States-based Ladies Professional Golf Association (LPGA).