World No. 2 Lexi Thompson, last week’s winner Stacy Lewis and former top-ranked player Lydia Ko of New Zealand highlight the field this week in the inaugural Indy Women in Tech Championship in Speedway, Ind.
The tournament is being contested from Thursday through Saturday.
A total roster of 144 players from 26 different countries will play 54 holes of stroke play golf at the quirky but fabulous Brickyard Crossing Golf Club, which was designed by Indiana native Pete Dye. The course has four holes — a par 3 and three par 4s — that are routed inside the infield of the famed Indianapolis Motor Speedway, home of the Indianapolis 500.
The field will play for a total purse of $2 million, with $300,000 and 500 Race to the CME Globe points going to the player who can best solve Dye’s 6,599-yard, par-72 track. The holes inside the infield, which are normally Nos. 7-10, will make up the closing stretch in this event.
This is the LPGA Tour’s first event in Indiana since the ninth Solheim Cup in 2005, when the U.S. captured the first of three consecutive victories. Earlier this year, the inaugural Senior LPGA Championship was contested at the Pete Dye Course at the French Lick Resort, one of two major championships for the Legends Tour.
The Indy Women in Tech Championship will be the LPGA’s final domestic event until the season-ending CME Group Tour Championship in November in Naples, Fla. It is also the last event before the Tour travels to France for the fifth and final major championship of the season, The Evian Championship.
The tournament is one of three 54-hole events on the 2017 LPGA Tour schedule (ShopRite LPGA Classic, Walmart NW Arkansas Championship) and one of 16 Tour events with a purse of $2 million or greater in 2017.
This season, players are competing for $67.65 million in total official prize money, an all-time high for the LPGA Tour.
Lewis captured the Cambia Portland Classic last week in Cascadia and donated her entire winner’s check to the relief effort in southeast Houston, which was ravaged by Hurricane Harvey and its ensuing floods. The victory for Lewis ended a streak of 83 tournaments without a victory and she’s been on cloud nine ever since.
“I’ve been playing better the past few months and I just have been focusing on playing, rather than put pressure on myself to hit perfect shots or on a perfect putting stroke,” Lewis said of her win last week. “Things just got better as the week went on and I felt like I could go out and birdie every hole in the final round.
“I have five weeks off after this week to go home and help out with the relief effort and to recharge a little bit.”
Lewis’ victory marked the fifth win by a U.S. player in 2017, after Americans recorded only two victories all of last season. In the past 10 LPGA campaigns, the United States has finished with less than five wins just twice, in 2011 (four) and 2016 (two).
Her victory also snapped a winning streak of five consecutive events by players from South Korea, the nation that leads the Tour with 13 wins in 2017. The United States is the only other country with multiple wins, with six countries tied for third at one win apiece.
Fellow American Gerina Pillar will also be in the field and looking to improve on her 10th-place finish last week. Pillar is still looking for her first win of 2017 but feels she’s been playing good golf.
“Everything clicked last week, and I’ve been focusing on playing well,” Pillar said. “2017 has been a great year for me — I haven’t had a win but that doesn’t mean it hasn’t been a success. I’ve had chances to win and I’ve played great. The only thing I can control is myself and hitting good shots. I’m trusting the process and if I do the results will take care of themselves.”
This week’s Indy Women in Tech Championship presented is the 25th event in the season-long Race to the CME Globe. Thompson currently leads the standings with 2,692 points, followed by world No. 1 So Yeon Ryu of South Korea (2,652 points) and countrywoman and world No. 3 Sung Hyun Park (2,563 points), the Tour’s erstwhile leader for rookie of the year.