2008 LPGA Tour

The 2008 LPGA Tour was a series of weekly golf tournaments for elite female golfers from around the world that took place from February through December 2008. The tournaments were sanctioned by the United States-based Ladies Professional Golf Association (LPGA). In 2008, prize money on the LPGA Tour was $60.3 million, which was the highest in the history of the tour until 2016.

Lorena Ochoa topped the money list, earning $2,763,193. Ochoa also led the league in most wins with six, including four consecutive tournaments in March and April and one major tournament.

The four major championships were won by: Lorena Ochoa (Kraft Nabisco Championship), Yani Tseng (LPGA Championship), Inbee Park (U.S. Women's Open), and Jiyai Shin (Women's British Open). All major winners except Ochoa were not only first-time major winners, but first-time winners on the LPGA Tour. Tseng, at 19 years old, and Park and Shin, both at 20 years old, became the youngest-ever winners of the respective majors.

On May 12, a day after winning her third tournament of the season, Annika Sörenstam announced her intent to "step away" from competitive golf at the end of the 2008 season. She continued to draw large crowds through the remainder of the season, though she did not win another tournament on the LPGA Tour before the end of the year.

Jiyai Shin, a 20-year-old non-LPGA member, set records on the LPGA Tour by winning three of the nine tournaments in which she played, including the Women's British Open and the season-ending ADT Championship with its $1 million first place prize. She became the first non-LPGA member ever to win three events.

The LPGA organization also attracted attention in 2008 when commissioner Carolyn Bivens announced a new policy in August that would have required all players who had been on the tour for two years to show proficiency in English or face suspension.[1][2] The Tour rescinded the policy two weeks later after increasing criticism from the media and from LPGA Tour sponsors.[3][4]

Tournament schedule and results

ADT Playoff Categories:

  • winner: Official LPGA Tour events with a purse of at least $2,000,000. Winners of these events automatically qualify for the ADT Championship.
  • standard: Winners do not automatically qualify for the ADT Championship; the ADT points system is used.
  • unofficial: These events are not official LPGA Tour events and participation is not part of the ADT Playoff system.

The number in parentheses after winners' names show the player's total number of official money, individual event wins on the LPGA Tour, including that event.

DatesTournamentLocationADT Playoff
category		WinnerPurse ($)Winner's
share ($)
Jan 18–20Women's World Cup of Golf South Africaunofficial Philippines (Jennifer Rosales / Dorothy Delasin)1,400,000210,000
Feb 14–16SBS Open at Turtle Bay Hawaiistandard Annika Sörenstam (70)1,100,000165,000
Feb 21–23Fields Open in Hawaii Hawaiistandard Paula Creamer (5)1,300,000195,000
Feb 28 – Mar 2HSBC Women's Champions Singaporewinner Lorena Ochoa (18)2,000,000300,000
Mar 14–16MasterCard Classic Mexicostandard Louise Friberg (1)1,300,000195,000
Mar 27–30Safeway International Arizonastandard Lorena Ochoa (19)1,500,000225,000
Apr 3–6Kraft Nabisco Championship Californiawinner Lorena Ochoa (20)2,000,000300,000
Apr 10–13Corona Championship Mexicostandard Lorena Ochoa (21)1,300,000195,000
Apr 17–20Ginn Open Floridawinner Lorena Ochoa (22)2,600,000390,000
Apr 24–27Stanford International Pro-Am Floridawinner Annika Sörenstam (71)2,000,000300,000
May 1–4SemGroup Championship Oklahomastandard Paula Creamer (6)1,800,000270,000
May 8–11Michelob ULTRA Open at Kingsmill Virginiawinner Annika Sörenstam (72)2,200,000330,000
May 15–18Sybase Classic New Jerseywinner Lorena Ochoa (23)2,000,000300,000
May 22–25LPGA Corning Classic New Yorkstandard Leta Lindley (1)1,500,000225,000
May 29 – Jun 1Ginn Tribute Hosted by Annika South Carolinawinner Seon Hwa Lee (3)2,600,000390,000
Jun 5–8McDonald's LPGA Championship Marylandwinner Yani Tseng (1)2,000,000300,000
End of first half of the season
Jun 19–22Wegmans LPGA New Yorkwinner Eun-Hee Ji (1)2,000,000300,000
Jun 26–29U.S. Women's Open Minnesotawinner Inbee Park (1)3,250,000585,000
Jul 4–6P&G Beauty NW Arkansas Championship Arkansasstandard Seon Hwa Lee (4)1,700,000255,000
Jul 10–13Jamie Farr Owens Corning Classic Ohiostandard Paula Creamer (7)1,300,000195,000
Jul 17–20LPGA State Farm Classic Illinoisstandard Ji Young Oh (1)1,700,000255,000
Jul 24–27Evian Masters Francewinner Helen Alfredsson (6)3,250,000487,500
Jul 31 – Aug 3Ricoh Women's British Open Englandwinner Jiyai Shin (1*)2,100,000314,464
Aug 14–17CN Canadian Women's Open Ontario, Canadawinner Katherine Hull (1)2,250,000337,500
Aug 22–24Safeway Classic Oregonstandard Cristie Kerr (11)1,700,000255,000
Sep 11–14Bell Micro LPGA Classic Alabamastandard Angela Stanford (2)1,400,000210,000
Sep 25–28Navistar LPGA Classic Alabamastandard Lorena Ochoa (24)1,400,000210,000
Oct 2–5Samsung World Championship Californiastandard Paula Creamer (8)1,000,000250,000
Oct 9–12Longs Drugs Challenge Californiastandard In-Kyung Kim (1)1,200,000180,000
Oct 16–19Kapalua LPGA Classic Hawaiistandard Morgan Pressel (2)1,500,000225,000
Oct 24–26Grand China Air LPGA Chinastandard Helen Alfredsson (7)1,800,000270,000
Oct 31 – Nov 2Hana Bank-KOLON Championship South Koreastandard Candie Kung (4)1,600,000240,000
Nov 7–9Mizuno Classic Japanstandard Jiyai Shin (2*)1,400,000210,000
Nov 13–16Lorena Ochoa Invitational Mexicostandard Angela Stanford (3)1,000,000200,000
Nov 20–23ADT Championship Floridan/a Jiyai Shin (3*)1,550,0001,000,000
Nov 28–30Lexus Cup SingaporeunofficialTeam Internationaln/a
Dec 13–14**Wendy's 3-Tour Challenge NevadaunofficialChampions Tourn/a

Tournaments in bold are majors.
**The Wendy's 3-Tour Challenge was held on November 17. It was broadcast on television on December 13 and 14. The official LPGA Tour schedule lists the tournament dates based on the date of the television broadcast.
*Shin was not an LPGA member in 2008.

Leaders

Money List leaders

RankPlayerCountryEarnings ($)Events
1Lorena Ochoa Mexico2,763,19323
2Paula Creamer United States1,823,99226
3Yani Tseng Taiwan1,752,08627
4Annika Sörenstam Sweden1,735,91222
5Helen Alfredsson Sweden1,431,40826
6Seon Hwa Lee South Korea1,187,29430
7Suzann Pettersen Norway1,177,80924
8Inbee Park South Korea1,138,37027
9Angela Stanford United States1,134,75328
10Cristie Kerr United States1,108,83926

Full 2008 Official Money List - navigate to "2008"

Scoring Average leaders

RankPlayerCountryAverage
1Lorena Ochoa Mexico69.70
2Annika Sörenstam Sweden70.47
3Paula Creamer United States70.56
4Yani Tseng Taiwan70.77
5Cristie Kerr United States70.88

Full 2008 Scoring Average List - navigate to "2008", then "Scoring Average"

Award winners

The three competitive awards given out by the LPGA each year are:

  • The Rolex Player of the Year is awarded based on a formula in which points are awarded for top-10 finishes and are doubled at the LPGA's four major championships and at the season-ending ADT Championship. The points system is: 30 points for first; 12 points for second; nine points for third; seven points for fourth; six points for fifth; five points for sixth; four points for seventh; three points for eighth; two points for ninth and one point for 10th.
  • The Vare Trophy, named for Glenna Collett-Vare, is given to the player with the lowest scoring average for the season.
  • The Louis Suggs Rolex Rooke of the Year Award is awarded to the first-year player on the LPGA Tour who scores the highest in a points competition in which points are awarded at all full-field domestic events and doubled at the LPGA's four major championships. The points system is: 150 points for first; 80 points for second; 75 points for third; 70 points for fourth; and 65 points for fifth. After fifth place, points are awarded in increments of three, beginning at sixth place with 62 points. Rookies who make the cut in an event and finish below 41st each receive five points. The award is named after Louise Suggs, one of the founders of the LPGA.

See also

References
  1. "LPGA to require all players speak English". Golf.com. Archived from the original on August 27, 2008. Retrieved August 26, 2008.
  2. "Lieu: More American Requirements for LPGA Players". AsianWeek. Archived from the original on 3 September 2008. Retrieved 29 August 2008.
  3. "The Marketing Doctor says: The LPGA Is Making A Big Mistake". Marketing Doctor Blog. August 28, 2008. Archived from the original on December 20, 2008.
  4. Sirak, Ron (September 5, 2008). "LPGA Tour should have seen the fallout coming from English policy". ESPN. Archived from the original on September 9, 2008. Retrieved September 6, 2008.
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