The International Crown Gets Creative and Other LPGA Offseason Bits and Bobs

The LPGA Tour and Hanwha announced today that the Hanwha LIFEPLUS International Crown, a biennial team event, will add a new wrinkle this fall. A World Team has been added to the field and will be made up of the top-ranked players from four regions, not from a country already qualified. This qualification change upgrades the International Crown to a top-tier event on the schedule and gives two stars of the women’s game a chance to finally compete in a meaningful team event.

Lydia Ko (Africa and Oceania), Brooke Henderson (Americas), Celine Boutier (Europe), and Peiyun Chien (Asia) would make up the World Team if the field was chosen today. They’d join teams from the USA, South Korea, Japan, Australia, Thailand, China, and Sweden. With no equivalent to the Presidents Cup on the women’s side of professional golf and the International Crown requiring countries to field a team of four, Ko and Henderson, two of the LPGA’s most popular players, have been left out of team golf for the entirety of their long and decorated careers. That’s a shame and frankly, a black mark on the leaders and stakeholders for taking so long to figure this out.

The change makes the core tenet of the International Crown as a country-versus-country competition no longer the case, but let’s not pick nits. Bending the qualification format in this way is a massive net positive not only for the event, but women’s golf as a whole. This year’s edition will take place at New Korea Country Club, just outside of Seoul. Expect already high demand for tickets to go into overdrive as the golf-crazed country gets ready to host one the most dynamic events of the season. Kudos to all involved for finding a creative solution that gets more big names playing golf’s most exciting format.

Founders Finds a Sponsor

The LPGA found itself scrambling late last fall when Cognizant ditched its sponsorship of the Founders Cup, a tournament that routinely boasts a strong field and honors the 13 founders of the Tour. Some scheduling voodoo opened up a slot for Founders in early February, but that only tightened the window to lock down a new partner for one of the Tour’s most important events. Enter the U.S. Virgin Islands. The Tour can thank the islands of St. Thomas, St. Croix, St. John, and their Department of Tourism, for helping it narrowly avoid putting on a sponsor-less event in front of the remaining living founders who are regularly in attendance while celebrating its 75th season. Crisis averted.

Commissioner Search Committee Finalized

An eight-person search committee has been formed and tasked with finding the LPGA’s next commissioner. According to Golfweek’s Beth Ann Nichols, the committee’s members include player directors Ashleigh Buhai, Stacy Lewis, and Stephanie Meadow, LPGA Player President Vicki Goetze-Ackerman, President of the LPGA Professionals division Louise Ball, and independent board directors Michele Meyer-Shipp, Madi Kleiner and John Veihmeyer, who serves as Board Chairman. Goetze-Ackman and Veihmeyer served on the committee that hired Mollie Marcoux Samaan back in 2021.